Think that Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) puts the U.S. first in terms of service quality? Although most users would probably not ever notice, the U.S. actually ranks near the bottom in terms of downtime to internet users, according to a recent survey.

Among a measurement of actual downtime for one of the world's largest internet properties, Google's U.S. figure came in at number 26 on the list. That figure included 31 minutes of measured downtime for the yearlong period of September 1, 2006 to September 1, 2007. Thirty-one minutes may not seem like a lot of time, but for an internet-based company, that can be considered moderately high. For most of us who use Google, I sincerely doubt any downtime at all was seen. Did you witness any?

The study also said that Googlers in the U.S. of A. were 10 times more likely to encounter issues compared to Google users located in Brazil. For being Google's home market, apparently the search giant doesn't prioritize quality on that basis. Of course, the number of variables that can affect downtime must be virtually unlimited, with many of them outside of Google's control.

Indeed, Brazil had the best uptime for that annual period, with three short minutes of downtime. The Netherlands experienced 11 minutes of downtime, followed closely by India, Thailand and Japan. The worst? Those countries included Israel at 34 minutes of downtime, followed by Turkey, Singapore, Taiwan and Sweden. If those numbers sounds like a lot, none of the countries saw below a 99.99% uptime level at all on a global basis, according to the article. That fact in and of itself is pretty amazing, all things considered.