Gmail down for many, Hotmail users feel free to gloat (update: back for some!)
 

Having trouble accessing your Gmail? You're not alone. Far from it, as a matter of fact. Widespread reports of "Temporary Error 500" are sweeping the Twittersphere and, indeed, many fine members of Engadget are seeing the above when attempting to log in. We've seen numerous outages of Google's insanely popular email service in the past but this one seems to take the cake. Google reports that it is "investigating reports of an issue with Google Mail." You can check out the source link for more information -- or just keep on hitting F5.

Update: Seems to be working again for some, and Google has posted an update: "Google Mail 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."

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/17/gmail-outage/