Google Shuts Down 10 Services This Fall (2011)

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But, don't worry "Google Search" is not in one of them. That's right, Google will be shutting down 10 of its services this coming fall which is being regarded as the "autumn spring cleaning" of all time. So, you will find a number of products either being completely shutdown or merging others into existing products as features. Among the 10 is Aardvark, a 'social questioning' service, FastFlip, a news delivery system, and SideWiki, a technology designed to allow internet users to work together as they browsed. Others that did not make the grade include Buzz: the company's first attempt at a social network was greeted with fury when the company turned it on without warning, exposing people's 'friend lists' to the world Wave: Google's Wave was a strange hybrid of web forums, social networks and instant messaging. Most people were left puzzled, and it was the project was quickly abandoned Orkut: Google actually beat FaceBook to the social-network market with the oddly named Orkut. Orkut was a hit - but only in the Philippines, India and Brazil. It is still active today, but has just 66 million users next to Facebook's 750 million. (I can see some waves coming from the mentioned countries - hope some mylotters there are prepared) Google Pack, a collection of software tools available for download; Google Image Labeler, a game that got users to label pictures to improve the quality of Google's image search results; Google Notebook, which let users combine clipped URLs from the Web and personal notes into documents; and Google Maps API for Flash, which was created to give ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications - are amongst the list too. I believe there will be affected users out there and hope that this news would enable you to start looking for alternative services or products. I know it can be disappointing and a time of re-adapting but it is inevitable. So, please be prepared and do the necessary. Ref: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20101210-93/google-closes-10-businesses-to-focus-on-bigger-bets/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2034202/Google-closes-10-services-dont-worry-Search-isnt-them.html