GOOGLE, the internet search engine, crashed yesterday after it was hit by a computer virus called MyDoom.

The virus flooded the system with automated searches and is believed to have hit users in France, Britain and America. A spokesman for Google said that it had experienced “slowness” for a short period of time.

In a statement Google said: “The Google search engine experienced slowness for a short period of time earlier today because of the MyDoom virus, which flooded major search engines with automated searches. A small number of users and networks that have the MyDoom virus have been affected for a longer period of time. At no point was the Google website significantly impaired, and service for all users is expected to be restored shortly.”

Maksym Schipka, senior anti-virus researcher at UK-based internet firm MessageLabs Ltd, said: “Search engines are designed to deal with a high volume of requests from people around the world. On this particular occasion it could be the case that the virus reached the limit for Google.”

Rough estimates suggested that around ten million e-mails with attachments containing the virus could have been sent. Mr Schipka said it was expected the virus would reach a “very high peak” within its first few days but then start to “die out”.

Asked what people could do if they experienced problems he said: “Just sit and wait for Google people to sort it out. If people are not infected there is nothing to do.

“You do not necessarily have to be infected to experience problems with Google. If a person is infected just get hold of a good anti-virus programme.”

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Oxford-based anti-virus firm Sophos said that at one point most people could not access the website and were faced with an error message.

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