<p>On Monday morning Google experienced a technical glitch that knocked out countless Gmail accounts and even spread to other services like Chat and its Web browser, Chrome. And now Google has explained.</p><p>The outage only lasted 18 minutes, Google said in a report, and effected 8 to 40 percent of accounts at a time so it didn't bring digital communication to a halt. Enjoy a cup of coffee and Gmail would have been back.</p><p>The rise of the cloud has improved much of digital life. Anyone can open an e-mail account for free. There are no "versions" of software to be downloaded and updated. Fewer and fewer businesses are spending money on their own servers.</p><p>But the incident shows, like any other piece of software, that the cloud can fail too. To placate concerned customers, Google shed a little light on how Gmail works behind the scenes.</p><p><a href="http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2012/12/12/google-explains-how-gmail-died/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9740401/Google-blames-Gmail-disruption-on-faulty-update.html">Google blames Gmail disruption on faulty update</a> (Telegraph.co.uk)</p><p><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/gmail-2-0-hands-on-ios/">Gmail 2.0 for iOS hands on: It&#039;s not perfect, but it&#039;s getting there</a> (Digital Trends)</p><p><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/gmail_bug_was_actually_chrome_configuration_error/">Worldwide Gmail crash was due to Google Sync bug</a> (Register)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d_Uu6OaBQtOdTRMMTYsnTVDwb7p1M&ned=us">646 additional articles.</a></p>