Google Kills 6 Services

Google Kills 6 Services

Google announced late last week that they were killing 6 of their services, Dodgeball, Google Catalog Search, Google Mashup Editor, Google Notebook, Jaiku, and Google Video.  Additionally, the Jaiku service is going to be an open source project from here on out.

From Informationweek:

In addition to Google’s announcements about the elimination of 100 recruiting positions and the shutdown of offices in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden, the company said it would close Dodgeball, Google Catalog Search, Google Mashup Editor, Google Notebook, and Jaiku. It also said it’s discontinuing the ability to upload videos to Google Video.

Okay, Google isn’t infallible.  Most of this makes sense, certainly the moves to eliminate redundant development paths such as with Mashup Editor and without question Google Video, which should have shutdown within weeks of the YouTube purchase years ago.

Still, I question stopping development on Google Notepad (it will remain available for the foreseeable future) which was a useful project that isn’t redundant and is in fact, quite unique.  I suspect that little development projects won’t be the future for Google.  The question we then ask is what do we lose?  Will we ever see the benefit of the Google 20% development projects again?  Indeed, do we really expect the 20% development rule will still be in effect?  I think not…


5 thoughts on “Google Kills 6 Services

  1. I’m slightly surprised that knol isn’t on the list! Yes they do have their stuff ups which is nice to know when you are trying to figure out why your site just got buried on page 1000 for its keyword LOL

  2. The rumor vine has it that this is just the first round of product cuts. For the most part, the choices any of us would have made a year ago…expect for Notebook, but even there I can kind of understand, due to it’s limited adoption rate.

    Knol is a prime candidate for round 2, in my estimation. Perhaps it’s time to get the “Google Service Dead Pool” started. Lis – you’ve got Knol. I’m going with the long overdue removal of the “Feeling Lucky” link on the google search. Not a service, but it’s been said they loose over 17 million a year due to that link taking people away from the SERP.

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