Google Talk Is Down: Worldwide Outage Since 6:50 AM EDT (It’s Back Up For Some)

It’s not just you. GTalk is down worldwide. Google first recognized the issue and started investigating at 6:40 AM EDT. While Google Talk appears to be up at first glance, calls and messages fail to complete, likely leaving internet users feeling alone, adrift in a sea of information without anyone around to share a laugh over a cat GIF.

Since the service crashed, Google has provided hourly updates via the Google Talk Service Details page. The latest one, posted at 8:50 AM EDT, does not provide an estimated time when Google expects the service to be restored.

7/26/12 6:50 AM

We’re aware of a problem with Google Talk affecting a majority of users. The affected users are able to access Google Talk, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behavior. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 7:50 AM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

Until GTalk is restored, let me suggest communicating with fellow Internetters via Skype, Aim, or even ICQ (yes, it’s still around). Or, and this is a bit crazy, but use this outage to your advantage and take a walk outside.

TechCrunch reached out to Google for comment but the company has yet to respond.

Update: Google responded, “We’re aware of a problem with Google Talk, and are doing our best to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We are posting regular updates on our Google Apps dashboard.”

Update 2: From Google, “Google Talk service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.”