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NEW YORK — Google Search, the world’s most-used internet tool, suffered a widespread outage Tuesday, leaving millions of users staring at “500 Internal Server Error” messages and blank result pages as engineers scrambled to restore service.

The disruption began around 4:30 a.m. UTC, affecting users across Australia, India, Europe and parts of the United States. Downdetector recorded sharp spikes in complaints, with peaks exceeding 3,300 reports in India alone and thousands more globally. Many described intermittent failures — searches loading one moment, then failing the next.

Google’s official Search status dashboard showed no formal incident as of late Monday but user reports painted a different picture. The company has not yet issued a detailed public statement, though multiple sources confirmed engineers were actively working on a fix involving server-side issues.

For many, the outage felt like a digital earthquake. “First time in my bloodline seeing Google down,” one viral X post read, capturing the shock of a generation that grew up treating the search giant as infallible. Memes flooded social media within minutes, joking about failed attempts to look up everything from recipes to sports scores and celebrity news.

The outage primarily hammered Google Search, the core product that processes billions of queries daily. Users reported “server error” pages when trying basic searches, while other services like Gmail, YouTube and Maps appeared largely unaffected in most regions. Still, the ripple effects were immediate. Students couldn’t research assignments. Workers lost access to quick information. Even casual users found themselves turning to alternatives like Bing or DuckDuckGo.

In India, where Google dominates the search market, the timing hit during peak morning hours. Complaints surged around 10:20 a.m. IST. Similar patterns emerged in Australia and parts of Europe as the day progressed. In the U.S., reports were more scattered but still significant during East Coast business hours.

This marks one of the more noticeable Google Search disruptions in recent memory. While the company maintains robust redundancy, rare global hiccups expose how central its infrastructure has become to daily life. Past outages, such as brief global service blips in previous years, resolved within hours but still generated headlines and user frustration.

Tech analysts noted the irony: Google’s own tools for diagnosing outages were harder to reach. “When the search engine goes down, people suddenly remember there are other ways to find information,” said one cybersecurity expert monitoring the situation. Workarounds included refreshing pages repeatedly, switching browsers or devices, or using incognito mode. Some reported success with mobile data instead of Wi-Fi.

The incident comes amid Google’s busy spring calendar. The company is set to host “The Android Show” later Tuesday, previewing Android updates ahead of Google I/O 2026. Whether the outage will impact event coverage or live streams remains unclear, though most signs point to Search-specific problems.

Social media reaction mixed panic with humor. Users shared screenshots of error messages alongside captions like “Google said ‘no results found’… for itself.” Others expressed genuine concern about reliance on a single company. “What if this lasts all day?” one parent posted after failing to find homework help for a child.

Businesses that depend on Google for traffic felt the pinch. E-commerce sites, news outlets and small blogs saw immediate drops in organic search referrals. SEO professionals monitoring analytics dashboards reported sudden traffic plunges in real time. For companies already navigating algorithm changes, the outage added another layer of unpredictability.

Google has a strong track record of quick recovery from such events. In similar past incidents, full service returned within one to two hours once the root cause — often a server configuration issue or brief overload — was isolated. As of midday Tuesday, some users reported gradual improvement, though others continued experiencing problems.

Experts point to the complexity of Google’s global infrastructure as both strength and vulnerability. The company operates dozens of data centers worldwide with sophisticated load balancing. A synchronized error across regions suggests a possible backend propagation problem rather than a localized failure. Google’s status pages for Workspace and Cloud showed no broad issues, further isolating the problem to consumer Search.

For everyday users, the outage served as a reminder of digital dependence. Parents helping with school projects, journalists on deadline, traders checking market news — all hit roadblocks. Alternative search engines saw temporary traffic surges. Bing trended on social platforms as users sought substitutes.

Google’s dominance means even short outages generate outsized attention. The company processes more than 8.5 billion searches daily. A disruption affecting even a fraction of that volume creates millions of frustrated experiences. In regions with limited tech alternatives, the impact feels more acute.

As the situation developed Tuesday, Google had not confirmed the exact cause. Speculation ranged from routine maintenance gone awry to a possible DDoS attempt, though no evidence supported the latter. The company typically provides post-mortem reports for significant incidents, detailing what went wrong and steps to prevent recurrence.

The outage also sparked broader conversations about internet resilience. With AI-powered features like Google’s Gemini increasingly integrated into Search, any backend instability can cascade quickly. Users relying on voice search or mobile apps reported parallel problems.

By early afternoon in many time zones, reports on Downdetector began declining, suggesting recovery was underway. Still, intermittent issues persisted for some. Google encouraged users to check its official status pages and clear cache or restart devices as temporary fixes.

This event underscores Google’s invisible but critical role in modern society. From navigation to knowledge access, its services power workflows large and small. When they falter, even briefly, the world notices. For now, engineers continue working behind the scenes while the internet holds its collective breath for full restoration.

Users are advised to stay patient and try basic troubleshooting. As one popular meme circulating Tuesday put it: “Google is down… guess we’ll have to ask each other questions like it’s 1999.” In an always-connected world, even a few hours without search feels like stepping back in time.

Google has built its empire on reliability. Tuesday’s outage, while disruptive, tests that reputation. How quickly and transparently the company responds could shape public perception heading into its major product announcements later this week. For millions worldwide, the only question that matters right now is simple: When will Google be back up?

SALT LAKE CITY — Elder W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Missionary Department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Monday at age 59 after sustaining a traumatic brain injury while with his family in St. George, Utah.

The church announced the sudden passing Tuesday in a news release, describing Bassett as a devoted husband, father, grandfather and valiant disciple of Jesus Christ. His death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from church members worldwide who remembered his warmth, humility and dedication to missionary service.

” We are deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Elder W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy who had been serving since April of 2016,” the church statement read. “Elder Bassett passed away on May 11, 2026, as a result of a traumatic brain injury. He was with his family in St. George, Utah, when the incident occurred.”

At the time of his death, Bassett oversaw the church’s global missionary efforts during a period of historic growth. Under his leadership, the Missionary Department reported unprecedented numbers of young men and women choosing to serve, reflecting renewed enthusiasm for the church’s proselyting work.

Just days before his passing, on May 5, Bassett delivered a devotional at the Provo Missionary Training Center. He urged missionaries to teach the doctrine of Christ and “invite everyone to come — and do everything you can to help them enter this beautiful gate which leads to eternal life.” The message, captured on video and shared widely, now stands as one of his final public testimonies.

William Mark Bassett was born Aug. 14, 1966, in Carmichael, California, to Edwina Acker and William Lynn Bassett. The second of five children, he grew up in a gospel-centered home that emphasized faith through small, consistent experiences. He often credited his parents with helping him build a personal foundation of belief.

Bassett served a full-time mission in the Guatemala Guatemala City Mission from 1985 to 1987. After returning, he attended Brigham Young University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1991. While at BYU, he maintained a long-distance courtship with Angela Brasher, a young woman from his Sacramento-area hometown. They married in the Salt Lake Temple on Dec. 20, 1989.

The couple raised five children together. Bassett worked in the wholesale auto auction industry, serving as controller at Brasher’s Sacramento Auto Auction and later as chief financial officer and co-owner of West Coast Auto Auctions Inc. The business operated auctions across California, Oregon, Nevada and Idaho.

In 2007, Bassett and his wife were called to preside over the Arizona Mesa Mission, a three-year assignment that marked a shift toward full-time church leadership. He previously served as a ward Young Men president, bishop, stake president and Area Seventy.

Sustained as a General Authority Seventy on April 2, 2016, Bassett served in the Brazil, North America Northeast and North America Southeast Area Presidencies. His global perspective and business background proved valuable in expanding missionary efforts. He spoke in general conference twice — in October 2016 and April 2023 — bearing powerful witness of Jesus Christ’s Atonement and the Restoration.

Colleagues and family described Bassett as thoughtful, humble and deeply attentive to others. His wife, Sister Angela Bassett, once noted his tenderness: “He remembers people, and he’s always quietly doing things for others.” Missionaries and church leaders recalled his genuine interest in their lives, often asking caring questions during interactions.

Bassett’s leadership in the Missionary Department coincided with significant developments, including expanded use of technology, service missions and efforts to help truth seekers find the “strait gate” to eternal life. He emphasized teaching core doctrine and ordinances such as baptism and confirmation.

News of his death spread rapidly through church networks. Tributes highlighted his influence on missionaries and families. One church member recalled a dinner where Bassett asked thoughtful questions that made everyone feel valued. Others pointed to his example of balancing professional success with devoted service.

The church expressed deep appreciation for Bassett’s decade of general authority service. “His service in this calling coincided with a period of historic growth in missionary efforts around the world and unprecedented levels of missionaries deciding to serve,” the statement noted. “Elder Bassett will be deeply missed and always remembered for his great faith and dedicated service to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Funeral services are pending. Messages of condolence for the family may be sent to sendcondolences@churchofjesuschrist.org.

Bassett’s passing comes as the church continues its emphasis on missionary work amid global challenges. His final devotional at the MTC, delivered less than a week before his death, serves as a poignant reminder of his lifelong commitment. In it, he challenged missionaries not only to invite others to the gospel but to actively help them progress toward covenants and eternal life.

Born in California but shaped by service across continents, Bassett embodied the church’s international reach. His Guatemala mission, area presidencies in Brazil and North America, and leadership of the Missionary Department reflected a life spent crossing cultural and geographic boundaries to build faith.

Friends and associates in the business community remembered him as ethical and hardworking before his full-time church service. His transition from successful executive to mission president and then general authority illustrated a pattern of consecration familiar to many Latter-day Saints.

As tributes continue to pour in, church leaders and members worldwide are reflecting on Bassett’s legacy of quiet discipleship. His emphasis on small faith-building experiences — drawn from his own youth — resonated with many who heard him speak. He taught that consistent, everyday choices create the foundation for enduring testimony.

The Bassett family has requested privacy as they grieve. They are supported by extended family, friends and church leaders. Angela Bassett and their five children, along with grandchildren, remain in the thoughts and prayers of the global church community.

Bassett’s life, though cut short, exemplified dedication to family, profession and faith. From Sacramento business offices to mission fields in Arizona and global leadership in Salt Lake City, he consistently pointed others toward Christ. His final public message at the MTC — delivered with characteristic conviction — now carries added weight as a capstone to a life of service.

In an era of rapid change for religious organizations, Bassett helped steer the church’s missionary program toward greater effectiveness and inclusivity. His emphasis on doctrine, invitation and personal connection left an imprint on thousands of missionaries and the people they taught.

As the church mourns, it also celebrates a life well lived in the cause of gathering Israel. Elder W. Mark Bassett’s example of humility, love and unwavering testimony will continue to inspire future generations of Latter-day Saints committed to the same work he championed until the end.

Shares of Indian IT majors, including Infosys and HCLTech, fell up to 4%, emerging as top losers on the Sensex and dragging the Nifty IT index down 3%. The decline came after OpenAI’s launch of the ‘OpenAI Deployment Company’, which rekindled concerns over potential AI-driven disruption in the sector.

The Nifty IT index slumped 3%, becoming the day’s top sectoral loser, even as the Indian rupee hit a fresh lifetime low by breaching 95.50 against the US dollar, and Wall Street rallied to new record highs on the back of a tech-driven surge.

OpenAI launches OpenAI Deployment Company

OpenAI on Monday announced the launch of OpenAI Deployment Company with an initial investment of $4 billion, designed to help organisations build and deploy AI systems they can rely on every day across their most important work. The artificial intelligence major said that successful AI deployment is about empowering people and teams to do more. The OpenAI Deployment Company will extend OpenAI’s ability to embed engineers specialised in frontier AI deployment, known as Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), into organisations working on complex problems in demanding environments, it added. “These FDEs will work closely with business leaders, operators, and frontline teams to identify where AI can make the biggest impact, redesign organisational infrastructure and critical workflows around it, and turn those gains into durable systems,” the firm further said.

As part of the launch, OpenAI agreed to acquire AI consulting and engineering firm Tomoro. The company said that the acquisition will bring nearly 150 experienced Forward Deployed Engineers and Deployment Specialists to the OpenAI Deployment Company from day one.
OpenAI said that the OpenAI Deployment Company is a committed partnership between OpenAI and 19 leading global investment firms, consultancies, and system integrators. TPG leads the partnership, with Advent, Bain Capital, and Brookfield as co-lead founding partners, and B Capital, BBVA, Emergence Capital, Goanna, Goldman Sachs, SoftBank Corp., Warburg Pincus, and WCAS as founding partners.
IT stocks saw a significant decline earlier this year. The rout began on Dalal Street back in February after AI startup Anthropic launched plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent, which could automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis.
“We call it the ‘SaaSpocalypse,’ an apocalypse for software-as-a-service stocks,” Bloomberg quoted Jeffrey Favuzza from the equity trading desk at Jefferies as saying.

Notably, BSE on Monday had launched futures and options (F&O) contracts on the BSE Focused IT Index, becoming the first exchange in India to introduce derivative products benchmarked specifically to the information technology sector. The IT segment accounts for nearly 6% of the total market capitalisation of companies listed on the BSE.

Also read: Groww shares sink 7% as Peak XV, Sequoia, others launch Rs 5,637-crore stake sale amid IPO lock-in expiry

IT stocks

Persistent Systems shares fell 4.75% to an intraday low of Rs 4,855, making it one of the biggest drags on the Nifty IT index on Tuesday morning. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys also declined around 4% to lows of Rs 2,292 and Rs 1,131.6, respectively. Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra, Coforge and LTI Mindtree dropped around 3% each.

HCLTech, Wipro and Mphasis shares fell more than 2% each, while OFSS shares dropped around 1%.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Shares of Afcons Infrastructure surged 5.21% to Rs 343.60 during Tuesday’s trading session after the company announced a breakthrough in its international expansion strategy by securing a massive railway infrastructure project in Croatia worth approximately Rs 7,544 crore.

In its exchange filing dated May 11, Afcons Infrastructure announced that it had received intimation from the client confirming the company as the “most suitable bidder” for a railway rehabilitation and construction project in Europe.

The project is expected to be Afcons’ largest international order to date and represents the company’s official foray into the European infrastructure sector.

Commenting on the development, Executive Chairman Mr Krishnamurthy Subramanian said the project represents a significant milestone in Afcons’ global growth journey. He added that the win highlights the company’s capability to execute complex and large-scale infrastructure projects across geographies while strengthening its reputation as a trusted international infrastructure partner.

Managing Director S. Paramasivan stated that the project includes the reconstruction of the existing railway track along with the construction of a second railway line. The scope also covers overhead electrification, signalling systems, and telecommunication works. The total project value stands at €677.07 million excluding taxes, equivalent to nearly Rs 7,544 crore.

He further noted that the project aligns with the vision of India’s Prime Minister’s “Making for the World” initiative, showcasing Indian engineering capabilities on the global stage.

Stock Performance & Valuation

The company currently commands a market capitalisation of around Rs 12,013 crore, while the stock’s 52-week high is Rs 479.40.
On the valuation front, Afcons Infrastructure is currently trading at a Price-to-Earnings (PE) ratio of 27.81, while its Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio stands at 1.43 and Price-to-Book (P/B) ratio at 2.38. From a technical perspective, the stock is showing positive momentum, indicating underlying strength in the ongoing trend.
According to Trendlyne data, the stock’s RSI (14) is at 51.5, indicating neutral momentum. Typically, an RSI below 30 is considered oversold, while an RSI above 70 is viewed as overbought.

Also read: Groww shares sink 7% as Peak XV, Sequoia, others launch Rs 5,637-crore stake sale amid IPO lock-in expiry

Technically, the stock remains in a bullish zone as it is trading above 6 out of its 8 key simple moving averages (SMAs), suggesting improving momentum after recent consolidation.

Mutual Funds Raise Stake

Shareholding data for the March 2026 quarter shows growing institutional confidence in the company. Mutual fund holdings increased from 17.02% to 18.60%, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) marginally reduced their stake from 12.81% to 12.19% during the same period.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)