Google Search experienced a widespread outage earlier today

If you were facing issues using Google a few hours ago, you might have panicked, and you might have thought your internet was the culprit. However, you can stop wondering whether your ISP is at fault because it seems that Google Search was facing a widespread outage.

According to several reports on Reddit, people were having trouble with Google Search. The platform was returning server errors for a large number of people. The problem wasn’t limited to the US, either. Search was apparently glitched out for users in various countries, including the Philippines, South Korea, and India, among others.

Users reported problems with search on various social media platforms. On X, several users posted screenshots showing that the Google Search website wasn’t loading for them. Downdetector also showed a massive spike in reports around 1 AM ET. A majority of these reports were related to Google Search, but there were also reports of content not loading as well as overall website issues.

Meanwhile, the outage seems to have helped Bing get some more interaction. With Google was not working, people headed over to Bing as the next best option.

Google hasn’t acknowledged the outage yet. In fact, the company’s status dashboard doesn’t even show any incidents related to Google Search. Google isn’t usually lackadaisical about its services, but there have been instances in the past when bugs and oversights have caused problems. In one such case, a person was able to purchase the Google domain for just $12 due to a bug.

Search outages are relatively rare, with the last major Google Search disruption occurring in February 2026. That incident was resolved within about 15 minutes, and based on user reports, this latest outage also appears to have been short-lived, with Search returning to normal soon after the issue began. Some users reported that reloading the website fixed the issue, while others said it was resolved within five minutes.