encyclo - 2:19 am on Mar 2, 2007 (gmt 0)

I've just tried Gmail, and it's working perfectly and as fast as ever. Have you tried doing a traceroute to see if it's really Google at fault and not just a routing problem on an intermediate step?

If you're paying Google, for example for the Apps service, then you should be checking out your service-level agreement to find out what your options are, if you're just using the free email service, unfortunately you get what you pay for.