It’s one of those moments that makes you realise how important the internet has become to everyday life – Gmail is down and has been down for a while now. Cue collective gnashing of teeth and howls from the 20 million users worldwide, as we realise how utterly vital the email service is to us.

Or is it? It’s frustrating, sure, but surely something’s not so important that it can’t be worked around. There’s plenty of other ways of contacting people – Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, another email account. Even the telephone. I love the internet, but I refuse to accept that when one site goes down, it takes the whole of our lives with it.