14 DAY TRIAL // One year in and Google is still not done with the cleaning up, aka shutting down of unpopular or abandoned services. The big drives at Google ever since Larry Page took over as CEO have been a better focus on the things that work and getting rid of the things that don't.
The latest additions to the kill list are some rather big products of yesteryears, the personalized homepage iGoogle and the ambitious, if not entirely original and ultimately doomed, Google Video.
Granted, Google Video at least, has been on life support for many years now, but iGoogle still has some users that swore by it, even though the writing has been on the wall for it for quite a while as well.
"Technology creates tremendous opportunities to improve people’s lives. But to make the most of them, we need to focus—or we end up doing too much and not having the impact we strive for. So last fall we started a spring clean, and since then we’ve closed or combined more than 30 products. Today we’re announcing a few more closures," Google explained.
There are a couple of smaller names on the list as well. The Google Mini, an enterprise search tool, is getting the axe. Google Mini is a rackable server that is dedicated to search, just inside an organization rather than over the entire web. It's similar to the Google Search Appliance.
The Google Talk Chatback widget is being retired as well. Websites that want to embed chat features are directed towards the Meebo bar, now owned by Google.
The Symbian Search App is no longer being maintained. Given that Nokia has abandoned Symbian as well and that few new phones come with the ancient mobile operating system, Google's decision makes sense.