"Blog Not Found"

I doubt if anybody noticed, but my entire blog went missing for the better part of last week. One moment I was checking my email on my mobile phone, the next I was locked out of my Google account, due to what they termed suspicious activity. I immediately tried to view my blog, only to be greeted by a heart-warming "Blog not found" message.

I've only been blogging for about a year and a half now, but needless to say, I wasn't exactly keen on watching all that time circle down the drain.

The first thing I did after getting the message (aside from panic of course) was to google around for a solution. At least I wasn't locked out of their search engine. And it didn't take very long before I realized my problem wasn't unique. The general concessus was that it would eventually sort itself out.

So I basically had to log in from a PC and do an account verification (the same kind you do over the phone when creating a new account) in order to regain access to my Google account. Then I had to play the waiting game. Each time I tried to view my blog and I received that dreaded message (about a hundred times in all) was like a slap in the face.

But just like magic, I tried viewing it sometime on Friday, and there it was, as though it never went missing in the first place. It has been back ever since.

The whole experience has got me thinking about putting something as important as my author platform in the hands of a third party. I mean, what would happen if they decided to close up shop one day?

Have any of you ever experienced anything like this before? If so, what can you do to prevent it from happening again?