As a result, people couldn’t access Gmail via the web interface because their requests couldn’t be routed to a Gmail server. IMAP/POP access and mail processing continued to work normally because these requests don’t use the same routers.
I had no idea it was down, mostly because my phone kept pumping out new emails no problem (thank you IMAP!). So, it wasn't really down, it's just that the web interface was down.
I downloaded ALL of my mail semi-recently via POP3 so I have copies of it all (and I continue to download new mail as well). It's really incredible to see how much mail I've sent over the past ~3 years!
You guys and your fancy phones. Some of us peons still use a web browser!
Reminds me that I really do need to download all my emails.
Man, I LOVE my phone. And I don't even have a data plan yet!
And yeah, downloading all your mail is just a good idea at this point. I recommend Thunderbird since it stores the email in a format that can be recovered by nearly any application (mbox). A word of warning; the first MANY times you tell it to fetch new mail, it'll keep telling you you only have a few thousand. Just keep fetching the mail and it will eventually be all caught up. It takes some time...
While you're doing it, don't forget to export all your contacts too
