Google, the worlds most popular search engine, faced a major international outage yesterday, affecting thousands of users around the globe.

In Australia alone, Downdetector received almost 4,000 reports of issues with Google’s search engine, as well as it’s other services such as Google Maps and Google Sheets. Reports were much higher in the US at almost 30,000, and reached over 40,000 worldwide according to Bloomberg. Countries affected included

https://twitter.com/downdetectorau/status/1556814680974413824

By 3PM AEST, the issue was fixed for almost everyone, with reports numbering just over 30.

Google, who is yet to comment on the outage, is usually known for it’s reliability, and outages of this kind are extremely uncommon. While not confirmed as the cause of the issue, an electrical incident occurred at a Google facility in Iowa yesterday which sent three people to hospital.

“We are aware of an electrical incident that took place today at Google’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, injuring three people onsite who are now being treated,” said a company representative in regard to the incident.

“The health and safety of all workers is our absolute top priority, and we are working closely with partners and local authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation and provide assistance as needed.”