Google's popular Gmail service suffers disruption

Google reports Gmail crash was due to "service disruptions".

Google's Apps Dashboard monitoring service reported that Gmail and Drive service had resumed after suffering outages.

The company did not specify how many users were affected, or where, but the outage prompted widespread complaints on social media on both coasts in the US and other major markets, from the United Kingdom to Brazil.

Some users additionally reported that the outage had affected Google Docs, the company's word-processing and spreadsheet programs, while Chrome, Google's Internet browser, also crashed unexpectedly.

"We are currently experiencing an issue with some Google services," Google spokesperson Andrea Freund said in a statement. "For everyone who is affected, we apologise for any inconvenience you may be experiencing."

Firmly entrenched in the consumer market, GMail is one of Google's most popular and important product offerings. The search giant, which has been pushing a corporate version of the email service and its Apps suite to businesses to compete with Microsoft, said this month that the package will no longer be free to business customers.