The first thing I did today when my Google Mail stopped responding was to get on Twitter and ask if Google Apps was (were?) down. Better idea: Check the Google Apps status report. It includes both a current report and a history for the past several days. As of 4:02 pm EDT on 9/1/09 …
Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users within the next 1.2 hours. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.
Users can access their email via IMAP or POP. You can find instructions for how to do this here.
If setting up an IMAP account, don’t forget the special settings for the incoming and outgoing servers!