Focus. More focus. That is one of the things Larry Page is aiming for since he became Google CEO on April 2011 and in the business world “more focus” means that the life expectancy of some products, services and projects is about to be way shortened.
And so, Larry’s journey to the focus-land has now gone through additional five more casualties as the counter currently shows 31 duds in total. On this latest round of the Mountain View Crusades, you can find some products which were Google’s most promising back on their early glory days.
Here’s the full list of the most recent axed product and their fate:
- Google Mini- Since there are already other products which offers the same functionality, on July 31st Google Mini will say goodbye and retire after 7 years on the service. Current Mini clients will be contacted for further details.
- Google Talk Chatback- Once an exciting feature which granted the possibility for site owners to chat with users has left this world without even getting out of beta. Google is suggesting site owners to switch for its recently acquired Meebo bar.
- Google Video- This product was already in vegetative state for the last 3 years and on August 20th Google will finally pull the plug. All remaining videos will be moved to YouTube (as private videos).
- iGoogle- Shortly after iGoogle was launched in 2005, it benefited from a great success which on its peak was accounted for significant portions of Google’s traffic. But as time went by and technology progressed forward, iGoogle didn’t advanced alongside as well. If you still use iGoogle, you will have some time for your farewell- Judgment day on November 1st 2013.
- Symbian Search App- I actually didn’t knew that this app was still alive (or Symbian in general), but apparently “soon” it will disappear for good. The app, not Symbian that is (or maybe Symbian as well?).
If you like to see all of Google’s axed products since Page the reaper took office, here’s a great Pinterest board which offers a nice modern mausoleum outlook.