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Recap: 6:13PM PST: Google was not hacked, but instead had a DNS problem. For some readers the site was redirecting to the SoGoSearch page. That continues to fox me, and I plan to investigate further. All services have been restored. I find it amazing: Google is now as integrated in our lives as a phone company, or heaven forbid, TV networks. Multiple experts say that the screen grab I got was result of broswers not being able to resolve to Google.com, and instead stumbled upon google.com.net (com.net is the SoGoSearch website, and they have a wildcard match). Once Google’s DNS was restored, browsers stopped the appending, and started functioning normally.

Update #6: Yet another screen shot And another one, plus looks like someone swiped the domain name. Larry Magid was on the local CBS radio talking about the Google’s great vanishing trick.

Update #5: Everything back to normal. All Google services are working. Though as an aside, Google has reached the full capacity for its Web Accelerator Beta.

Update # 4: More from Mr. Krane of Google: BTW, this was not the result of a hack or any kind of security issue. “Yes, it was a DNS issue. We’re seeing things as fully restored as of more than 30 min. ago. You’re the first to send such a screen shot and report this kind of issue. I’ll bounce it to the tech staff and will keep you posted.” I got another screenshot which was as of 5.08 PM PST. Not sure if I am having this problem in specific or others noticing the same issue. I use comcast as broadband provider. Any updates people?

Update #3: David Krane, the big cheese @ Google PR wrote back a few seconds ago and had this to add, “Google’s global properties were unavailable for a short period of time earlier today. We’ve remedied the problem and access to Google has been restored worldwide.”

Update #2: Some people are saying in the comments here and over at Engadget, that Google might have been in middle of a DNS software switch. I still can’t believe that a strange image would just show up there.

Update #1: Some people say they have it back, but I am still having trouble logging in to my Gmail. And still not getting Google homepage. I have left voice mail and sent emails to Google’s PR people and their hotline. Not sure, what’s going on precisely but will be on the story.

03.11 PM, PST: Looks like we are having a Google outage – apparently someone has hijacked their Domain, and something called SoGoSearch is showing up instead. GMail was down as well. Google ads are not being served up as well. Am I the only one, or did you guys feel the webquake as well? Man if this is a hack, then we now know nothing – not even god, I mean Google is safe! Is this someone’s idea of teaching them a lesson? Or has the Web Accelerator shown its true colors? Lots of unanswered questions. Here is a screen grab by the way!