Following the Earthquake in Taiwan last week, the Internet as well as roaming and IDD services have encountered very serious disruptions. I personally could not access the Internet for almost four straight days…

When I say I could not access the Internet, there are a few exceptions. Of course I could access Web sites hosted in Hong Kong, but more surprising was the resilience of all Google Web sites. While Yahoo and MSN “networks” were entirely down, it was still possible to access most Google Web site like Gmail, Blogger or YouTube. Of course, downloading videos was not working on YouTube for example, but the interface was loading fine. Especially Gmail was working rather smoothly and offered a pretty useful option that allowed using the Web site in simple HTML mode.

It is in time of crisis that we can differentiate the best from the others… once again it is thumbs-up for Google.