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10 Google products which were killed in 2013 3

Google is responsible for giving birth to cool products and services that have changed the entire world. Google search, Gmail, Android, Blogger and so forth. But did you know that Google also killed off a large number of its own services last year? The reason behind is obviously to re-focus its priorities.  Here’s a list of the 10 good products Google killed in 2013.

google products axed in 2013 year projects services

1) Google Reader
This tool, a popular RSS feed aggregator, has been around since 2005 and had a devoted following. In March 2013, Google announced that it is killing Reader citing declining usage. However, this move faced severe criticism and an online petition against killing Reader garnered over 1,00,000 signatures. Nevertheless, Google went ahead and killed it in July.

2) Google Sync
Google Sync allowed users to synchronize their Gmail, Calendar and Contacts via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Though the enterprise version of the service still works, Google Sync for new consumers is not available since January. While you cannot set up new devices via Google Sync, devices that already use it continue to work seamlessly.

3) Google Shopper app
Google shut down this app for both Android and iOS platforms in August. Instead, users can now head to Google Search app to find the requisite product information. Google says this has been done to streamline the product shopping experience across all devices.

4) Google Catalogs
Google Catalogs, an Android and iOS app to browse through product catalogues of various companies died in August. It did not gain much attention among users even after 18 months of its launch.You can still get to the catalogs via a browser though.

5) iGoogle
The personalized home-page portal met its end on November. It allowed users to create a personalized home page whenever they opened the website. The company says that the need of such a service has decreased due to the exponential growth of apps that run on Android and Chrome.

6) Cloud Connect
This plug-in was designed to help people work in the cloud by automatically saving Microsoft Office files from Windows PCs in Google Drive. It went “poof!” on April. The reason? Google Drive does the same thing!

7) Google+ Local for mobile apps
First known as Places. Google pulled the app from the App Store in August. Despite the discontinuation, all of its data is available in Google Maps app.

8) Google Latitude
A location-based service, Latitude debuted in 2009.  It was a part of Google Maps and allowed users to track and share their location on the online mapping service via mobile phones. Google killed it in August and integrated it with Google+, its social networking platform.

9) Google Building Maker
Google launched this tool for making 3D building models in Google Earth and Map. It met its end in June this year and users were allowed to export the models they created using the tool from its 3D Warehouse. Google still has other tools in the Maps and Earth applications to create 3D renders.

10) Google Voice for BlackBerry
The company did not give a reason for killing this service, it was said that this was done because of declining blackberry user base. BlackBerry users who still want to use the Voice can opt for its HTML5 app.

3 thoughts on “10 Google products which were killed in 2013

  1. Reply altamash May 9,2014 7:45 pm

    oh I never knew about it, or never bother to find out unique knowledge I gained after reading this, just feeling bad about building that killed.. 😛 🙂

  2. Reply FIFA Word Cup 2014 Predictions Jun 23,2014 3:34 pm

    Thanks for sharing this information, seriously important i will again read this blog to get the latest updates, So i thank you once again, i will love to visit back on you blog

  3. Reply knight Aug 1,2014 12:35 am

    I am just aware of google reader and orkut..Rest sounds new too me.Thanks for sharing

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