Google search struck by outage

Server trouble hits search giant

Google users were unable to use its search function earlier this morning after the tech giant was hit by an outage.

At 10:30am, the search facility reportedly went offline, showing a "500 error" message.

"The server encountered an error and could not complete your request," the note told users.

Google has yet to comment on the matter but it is understood that mobile search users were unaffected, as well as those using other services such as Gmail and Google Calendar.

The firm is still recovering after coming under fire from UK news organisations over its "right to be forgotten" implementation.

Thousands of users have asked Google to allow posts about them to be "forgotten" but the Guardian, BBC and Daily Mail accused Google of taking a "clumsy" approach to obeying the new law.