Google and Gmail users are dealing with more issues this week, following reports of a disruption in the popular webmail service. Although not as bad as a complete outage this time, Gmail users found themselves deprived of the contact list feature, rendering them unable to search through or use contacts altogether.

Related services were also affected, such as autocomplete when typing in email addresses, the chat protocol and more. The issues have already largely been resolved, though the problem itself spanned a considerable length of time -- several hours -- with no acknowledgment by Google. A terse message from Google on the Apps Status Dashboard indicates that everything is under control as of a little over an hour ago.

Is it fair to shine a spotlight on every problem Gmail suffers? All providers experience issues now and again. If Gmail wasn't so widely-used, attention wouldn't be called to the occasional interruption. Given Google's reputation, the high level of critique their services receive is probably a compliment -- it demonstrates the interest people have for the company's products.