The company in an official blog posts announced the axing, declaring along the way that “Google is in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward. Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience”.
The list includes some very popular services like Google Bookmarks, Google Knol and Google Friend Connect—a service which was used heavily by webmasters to generate viral traffic to their web properties. Other services to go include Google Gears; Google Wave; Google Search Timeline and the lesser known Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C).
Users would have already seen notifications of the closure of Google Buzz, along with the reassurance that the data can be backed up and downloaded. This presumably will be the same treatment set aside for data stored on several products now ceased.
Google faced a backlash the other day over one of its services that was altered and I am sure the same will happen with at least one of these services.
Are you annoyed that Google is discontinuing so many services? Share your thoughts below.
Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2011/11/27/google-removes-7-more-services-including-knol-and-bookmarks/