Google on Tuesday continued amputating products and services as part of its "spring cleaning" campaign, a move that has prompted a deluge of complaints in the iGoogle support forum. Having already shut down more than 30 products and services since starting its purge last fall, Google is eliminating five more.
Four are unlikely to be missed.
- Google is discontinuing its Google Mini search appliance, a rack-mountable search server for businesses that sells for $2,990 to $9,990.
- Google is also eliminating Google Talk Chatback, a widget that allows websites to embed the Google Talk interface, and is encouraging users of the Chatback widget to try an installable toolbar from Meebo, which it acquired in June.
- Google Video, closed to new video submissions since 2009, is finally being euthanized. Users have until August 20 to migrate, download, or delete their videos. After this date, Google will archive Google Video content on YouTube as private videos.
- Google's Symbian Search App is being shut down. Eichner encourages Symbian users to use mobile web search instead.
Finally, Google plans to close iGoogle, its personalizable home page, in November 2013. The company introduced iGoogle in May 2007 when it was still trying to figure out social computing. At the time, Google saw iGoogle as a way to make search and advertising more relevant through personalization.
If Google remains committed to abandoning iGoogle, there will be several million people who may consider alternatives like NetVibes, Feedly, and My Yahoo.