Ok this is very, very strange... but ever since I've read this post, I've been having similar issues. At first I almost didn't believe that something like that was possible, but google has been very, very slow for me recently. Every other site just zips right through, but when I go to google, especially during times of high internet usage like on weekends and nights, it takes about 30 seconds to load, (which is a lot, trust me). And no, I'm not on cable, I'm on DSL, so it shouldn't be affected on how many people in my area are surfing the net. And It only applies to google. No other site seems to be slowing down... How odd.

It fails. I cannot even use spell check when google.com goes down.

I've been using google.ca with no problems.

Google works fine for me, always has. I've been using it a lot lately and I've had no problems with it, it isn't even any slower than usual. Sounds lie your ISP, computer, or web browser is to blame for it.

I think it's safe to assume this is wrong since I run 3 different PCs, 3 different web browsers, and everything else on the net works, including every google search website except for google.com.

I suspect that google runs different servers for different regions?

I want to believe it's your ISP that's playing pranks on you,because i don't remember ever seeing a google page displaying ERROR.
So its better you check-in with your Internet service provided.