The recent Gmail malfunction has called for some rethinking on the part of Google. Taking a cue from how irked the users can be at the time of such a glitch, Google has launched an assured Google Apps status dashboard, which will facilitate its communication with users about whether their online applications are up and functioning.

The announcement of the Google dashboard is on the lines of similar services by sites, like SalesForce. com and Amazon Web Services, which offer dashboards to show how well their services are functioning at any time.

With such a service in place, the customers much-haggled due to malfunctions can be calmed a bit, if they know the status of the malfunction like - what went wrong, what is happening and when the service will return. 

Elaborating on the Google Apps Status Dashboard, Tessa Prescott of the Google Apps sales team, said in a Wednesday blog post that the dashboard will provide "additional layer of transparency" for Google users. Prescott added: "Customers can check on the current service status of individual services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Video for business."

In the meantime, to compensate its business users for the downtime resulting from the recent glitch, Google has announced a fortnight of free service! (Rupinder contributed to this report)