Google down and out for 45 minutes on Monday- the perils of centralization

[Charles-Tim]

This is another failure of centralization of the internet, if the internet is decentralized and the web 3.0 evolves, this kind of thing will not happen as it will be more robustic and powerful just like bitcoin blockchain. That said, if taking bitcoin blockchain as an example, bitcoin blockchain has never been compromised before just because it is acceptable by people as miners protects it, web 3.0 will also be similar and will be protected by people just like in the case of bitcoin blockchain not by centralized body like google and the likes, and will never cease in operation like google just did for 45 minutes yesterday because it will be decentralized
According to a tweet from Google, the company suffered an “authentication system outage” that essentially rendered a wide variety of servers useless for about 45 minutes because the system was unable to confirm users were who they said they were. It seemed to largely affect Europe and extended well beyond what people might normally associate with not being able to get into their email. On Android smartphones, for example, native apps like Google Maps ceased to work, and internet-connected devices through Google Home were seemingly also down.



From Gmail and Google Calendar to YouTube and even Google’s two-factor authentication, the outage temporarily ground online work to a halt for many, including publications that would have otherwise been reporting on the outage. “If an internet giant like Google can suffer such a major attack – denying millions of users access to basic internet services – it just goes to show that under the surface of the shiny web interfaces we see, internet infrastructure actually hangs in a delicate and vulnerable balance,” said Jaro Šatkevič, head of product at Mysterium Network, an open-source Web 3.0 project focused on decentralizing the internet.
https://www.coindesk.com/google-down-the-perils-of-centralization

[Sparrow96]

I faced this yesterday. I thought it's my problem. All other services were working well. I am heavily dependent on Youtube. Luckily, I am in some international Telegram groups. I came to know about this problem.

However, it reminds us of decentralization.

[CryptocurencyKing]

With the bulk data available on Google and the continual increased usage, this @Outage is bound to happen just that, its not expected of tech giants like Google following it's long term of service and suffestication. This is actually a sign of more outages yet to come and how centralized system of network sucks. This calls for a decentralization of the system but, I don't see this happening as I believe (not a proven fact) government regulations and participation on the system has already eaten deep into the fabrics of it's management as it's used as a major spy window on citizens especially in the developed world. So, a decentralization of the system would be a blockage to this spy windows and would be idea for government so, a change from centralization to decentralization seems impossible.

[boyptc]

That outage from google made everyone including me to worry about some files that we needed to access during that time. I thought that I'm having a problem with my internet connection but it seems good and it's only Google that's experiencing a problem at that time.

This is really a problem for those companies like google that can't be avoided. I wouldn't compare this issue to anything related to crypto/blockchain.

[peter0425]

I faced this yesterday. I thought it's my problem. All other services were working well. I am heavily dependent on Youtube. Luckily, I am in some international Telegram groups. I came to know about this problem.

However, it reminds us of decentralization.

Good for you because there are groups  who had updated you while mine is none,i thought that there is a problem in my Unit then i checked in Mobile but same response so i believe that Google was hacked or something deep trouble happens.

Then i tried using other browser to clarify my belief and yes it works in other browser.

now i am doubting google to be more dependent instead will have some other browser to make my activities safer and less hassle .

[Ebullientfellow]

If only the internet would be decentralized, the world would have been saved of such an outage. An incident of this magnitude further shows the superiority of the decentralization ideal of blockchain. It's impossible for a DLT network to be down because a couple of its nodes is down. It's time these tech giants began to experiment with these blockchain features, but would they? Centralization gives them a lot of power that they can wield for their own gain.

[Ucy]

Well, people seem to rely heavily on centralized companies and probably don't realize how dangerous that is... not only in the area of network outage, also in privacy, transparency, accountability, security etc.

You don't trust or rely heavily on any internet company that is centralized, not very Transparent, not Privacy-friendly, not Censorship Resistant, that can have important information/data deleted without trace etc. When I realized some of this fact, I stopped considering them for serious/long-term usage.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Well, people seem to rely heavily on centralized companies and probably don't realize how dangerous that is... not only in the area of network outage, also in privacy, transparency, accountability, security etc.

You don't trust or rely heavily on any internet company that is centralized, not very Transparent, not Privacy-friendly, not Censorship Resistant, that can have important information/data deleted without trace etc. When I realized some of this fact, I stopped considering them for serious/long-term usage.

I think it's already too late for us to stop using Google accounts and other centralized companies on the surface web because ever since we started to use the internet, we have created and have been using different social media accounts on the internet, so I think it is already enough that we have surrendered our personal information from a centralized company.

[franky1]

in a fair comparison to bitcoin.
its like the block size quota only allowing certain amount of transactions per 10minute average block

bitcoin has had many mempool bootlenecks

[Mauser]

One curious fact I heard about the Google outage on Monday was that while you couldn't access the website through your normally browser, you could actually still access it if you switched into incognito mode. Unfortunately I was too late to try it out myself, but if it was true its a big thing in my opinion. It could mean that some form tracking wasn't working properly and that's why we couldn't access the website.

[J9 - Coinhost]

The tech giant finally took a hit!

[tvbcof]

I'll wager that a significant percentage of the 'outages' we'll see will be associated with a re-implementation of big parts the internet and supporting infrastructure in order to correct some 'defects'.  The main 'defect' being that it allows people to exchange information without 'proper oversight'.

[squatz1]

These outages not only hit regular people trying to use their google accounts, it hit people in education, google workplaces (gsuite), and so on and so forth. It's really crazy to sit down and think about how much google controls in a persons life, and how an outage could literally just put their life on pause for a large amount of time.


Email, Calender, Play Store, Google Classroom, literal HOSTING OF WEBSITES, and so on.

Google, like any other company who maintained a crazy grip on services, will lose its footing to another rival. That's Capitalism.

I'll wager that a significant percentage of the 'outages' we'll see will be associated with a re-implementation of big parts the internet and supporting infrastructure in order to correct some 'defects'.  The main 'defect' being that it allows people to exchange information without 'proper oversight'.

Not exactly sure on what is being said here. This seems like a pretty normal outage. Google could block anyone they don't want using their services at any point for any reason. Why would they need to cause massive issue for millions of others to achieve that goal?

[NotATether]

This is another failure of centralization of the internet, if the internet is decentralized and the web 3.0 evolves, this kind of thing will not happen as it will be more robustic and powerful just like bitcoin blockchain.

To be fair, Google Search was fixed really quickly because they understood "the internet" to 99% of the world means Google Search.

That said, if taking bitcoin blockchain as an example, bitcoin blockchain has never been compromised before just because it is acceptable by people as miners protects it, web 3.0 will also be similar and will be protected by people just like in the case of bitcoin blockchain not by centralized body like google and the likes, and will never cease in operation like google just did for 45 minutes yesterday because it will be decentralized

We may not have a single point of failure but it's also nearly impossible for us to weed out a bug or vulnerability (or nuisances like below) from all decentralized nodes.

Imagine Google Images decentralized and it gets a controversy like this: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/12/16882408/google-racist-gorillas-photo-recognition-algorithm-ai , there would be no way to force all the nodes to use the updated algorithm. People would in fact stir trouble by mass running older nodes with this blemish and further damage Google's reputation in a way that's impossible to repair.

[Broly46]

I had seen that coming, there is no doubt it might be pointless to be number one subscribed user on the video channel, but a matter of time would erase all that achievement, you may have got some golden play button, but all your ten years worth of sweat and blood goes into dust just because a network go down just like any other MMO RPG.

[franky1]

We may not have a single point of failure but it's also nearly impossible for us to weed out a bug or vulnerability (or nuisances like below) from all decentralized nodes.

the devs making bitcoin in the single github that everyone copies is the single point of failure

this has been proven in 2015-17 where a certain dev group disavowed access to other implementations. and forced a change to the blockchain on august 2017 using a mandatory activation

also by tweaking the blockchain and thus the code that miners use. they can then force people to upgrade to match the new codebase just to re-gain access to node connections and block/transaction data relay.

once you realise bitcoins "decentralisation" promise is not the same architecture from pre 2015 as it is post 2015
 you wil realise the comparisons of "decentralisation"  vs google does not apply

im a bitcoin hoarder for 8 years and will remain so. but i prefer to see the flaws and understand the limitations and be very transparent about it.

bitcoins decentralisation is not as you may believe.
bitcoins bottlenecks/points off failure are not as it seems

remember bitcoin can only handle a quota of ~2500tx /10min average.
google handles millions a minute.
bitcoin has had many times where no new confirmed transactions occured for more than 45 minutes
today block 661717->661718  57min gap


again i am not anti-bitcoin. i am anti-false promises

[Broly46]

I had seen that coming, there is no doubt it might be pointless to be number one subscribed user on the video channel, but a matter of time would erase all that achievement, you may have got some golden play button, but all your ten years worth of sweat and blood goes into dust just because a network go down just like any other MMO RPG.

This temporary shut down didn't cause any loss of data, as far as I know, only the services were unavailable for almost one hour on most of the countries and the services back into normal with the same subscribers' amount.

This temporary shut down cause huge economical loss as well as personal issues which shows how much we relied to services from a single centralized service provider for our daily needs.

Over the years we all should experience minor glitches on google service, it’s too often some video just simply don’t load for no reason, we would blame it on our side or the server side,  but why don’t assume it’s just some part of the server that’s outrage for a while. And this one last for 45 minutes and account for all services, that’s massive one outrage, I’m glad to move out from them as fast and as far I could, this backup isn’t as reliable as my backup hard disk too, when the disk corrupted you know the pain to get them back again, can you risk that again?

Yup you can still redirect all your traffic your subscribers to your own server hosting your own YouTube server in php, before the time run out of course.

[semobo]

I’m glad to move out from them as fast and as far I could, this backup isn’t as reliable as my backup hard disk too, when the disk corrupted you know the pain to get them back again, can you risk that again?

You have a chance of losing your data when stored in a hard disk when it faced physical damage or ageing factor but google drive is not an alternative because it's like you may lose your money to scammers when it gets stored into your own bank accounts so you are having so you wanted to put into someone's bank account so you will never lose.

Storing anything sensitive data into any online drive is highly risky.

[Broly46]

I’m glad to move out from them as fast and as far I could, this backup isn’t as reliable as my backup hard disk too, when the disk corrupted you know the pain to get them back again, can you risk that again?

You have a chance of losing your data when stored in a hard disk when it faced physical damage or ageing factor but google drive is not an alternative because it's like you may lose your money to scammers when it gets stored into your own bank accounts so you are having so you wanted to put into someone's bank account so you will never lose.

Storing anything sensitive data into any online drive is highly risky.

Don’t underestimate how reliable you harddisk might be even under extreme catastrophe there is still slim chance of recovering the data inside the harddisk, it might take a lot of effort or money, but you can’t compare that reliability with the online counterpart, the only way you can loss everything data is keep it in custodian online harddisk where the google have all the say on “their data not your data anymore since you agree on the term” bullshit agreement,  your harddisk, given its aged and some hardware broken, it’s still recoverable by fixing it slapping some new chip board and run some expert data mining tool to recover all the binary under the metal.

[pilosopotasyo]

I did not experienced this maybe because I was not online when it happened and this is the only time I read that it happened they have able to go up fast so not everyone notice, only those who are using their service, they should make let it happen again, so many people are using their services, they want to people elsewhere.