Update 10:34 am ET: Both Google News and Google Discover seem to be back to full functionality now.
Google News is currently experiencing an unexplained outage that has taken the service offline for millions of users around the world.
as Reported by Downdetector (and matches Tom’s Guide’s own experience) The news anchor is currently experiencing crashes on its desktop page and its iOS and Android apps. Although some users claim that search is also affected, I am unable to reproduce it.
Reports of the site being affected started coming in at 7.59am ET / 12.59pm BST today, May 31, and Google has yet to make any official announcement regarding the cause of the issue.
Users all over the United States – from places like Ohio and Florida – from London (where I live) to Manchester and Tom’s Guide team members across the UK have also been affected. Other regions such as India, Canada and continental Europe are also reporting problems.
Google Discovery is also affected and appears to be re-creating old cached content. We don’t have any information on when this issue will be resolved, but given the scope of Google’s messaging service, this outage will likely affect millions of people right now.
Of course, a lot of people take X to double-check that the service is actually down, with a few jokes thrown in for good measure.
Google News being hacked is very scary.May 31, 2024
Either Google News is down, or security hacks really are a thing. pic.twitter.com/Pe91Tg0afmMay 31, 2024
Google news is breaking 🔥 pic.twitter.com/AmmIFmtFhtMay 31, 2024
It’s not a good week for Google. A few days ago it came to light that more than 2,500 pages of API documents were published online, exposing secrets about how Google’s search algorithm works. The company’s head of search, Liz Reid, agreed Blog Google’s new AI overview feature revealed some pretty questionable answers to users’ questions that went viral on social media.
“We hold ourselves to the same high standards as our users, so we expect and appreciate feedback and take it seriously,” he wrote.
Tom’s Guide has contacted Google for comment on the current Google News outage.