Google is characterized by being a company that is committed to innovation and development to the point of launching more than a hundred new products each year. Many of them remain in their beta phase, but others end up being marketed or integrated into the company’s products. However, not all of them meet the same fate.
Google has closed 169 products or services to date.
While some products and services are well received by users and become basic tools in the catalog of options provided to Internet users by the search engine company, others are worse off and end up being closed because they do not meet the expectations with which they were created.
This is the case of Google Plus, the umpteenth attempt by Google to have its own social network and that, after 8 years of existence, was closed in April 2018. Or, for example, the case of YouTube Gaming, the video game platform of the video portal that announced its closure just a few days ago.
These are not two isolated cases, given that Google, throughout its history, has closed more than 200 products to which he devoted many hours and resources for their development. Some were discarded within a few days of life, although others took many years before they were no longer in use…
Those who are curious to know all the products that Google has closed in its history should know a website called KilledByGoogle.com, a collaborative project that collects all the services that, to this day, has closed the company owned by Alphabet.
It is a kind of Wikipedia that details each of the products that passed away, mentions how long ago it was closed and even links to its website if it is still available or to the news of a relevant media in which the closure was communicated.
Not only does it look at the past, but the website also lists product closures that have already been announced, even if they have not yet materialized. In addition, it incorporates a search engine to find that forgotten Google product among the different categories: applications, services and hardware.
Worth a look and see. how Google has been creating a veritable graveyard. of forgotten products. Some of its functionalities were recovered for other services, but many of these developments are now completely obsolete and without any use.
Some of Google’s recent product closures.
-Google Password Extension: this function allowed users to check if the passwords they used in the Chrome browser had been hacked. The search engine put an end to this tool in 2020, but not completely, because it has integrated it into its web browser and has called it “Google Password Checkup” and from it allows you to make the check quickly and directly, once it is installed. It even notifies of any irregularity with passwords so that the user can proceed to change it and feel more protected.
-Google Hangouts: this chat tool owned by Google had its days numbered since Google announced its closure for 2020 already in 2018. Although Hangouts is still alive for now, the company has already removed some features, such as the ability to make group video calls or to share location with other contacts. Google Chat will replace it definitively in 2021.
-Google Shoelace: was a social network that was launched in mid-2019, as another attempt by the search engine to have its own social platform. It served to bring together users with common interests in the same location. However, it was closed in May 2020.
-Google Play Music: this service was launched in 2011 to give users access to streaming music but was replaced this year by YouTube Music.
-Trusted Contacts: this app allowed to know the status and location of a trusted person if he/she did not answer a call. This app was removed from the Play Store this year, but in Google Maps there is a similar one called “Location Sharing” that allows to detect in real time the location of a user at all times, not only in emergency situations.
-Google Cloud Print: is a service that was launched in 2010. Since then it was kept as a beta version and served to allow printing from the web any document or file using Chrome. The closure of this tool will definitely take place on December 31, 2020.
-Google One Today: was a service that non-profit organizations could use to receive donations from users. It was launched in 2013 and in early 2020 was shut down due to low usage.
-Google Fiber TV: was a subscription TV service that Google decided to shut down in February 2020. The company recommended users to migrate to other platforms such as YouTube TV, FuboTV, SlingTV and Philo.
