Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Rishab
Google's Chief Executive Larry Page is continuing his efforts to streamline the company's operations by axing another 10 of their less successful ventures. Since his appointment in January, Page has been determined to move Google away from niche businesses and focus on the bigger products they offer instead.In an official blog post, aptly titled "A fall spring-clean", Alan Eustace, senior vice president of search said: "This will make things much simpler for our users, improving the overall Google experience. It will also mean we can devote more resources to high impact products—the ones that improve the lives of billions of people." He went on to note that all existing Google staff working on these closed ventures will be moved to other posts throughout the company.
Aardvark will face the axe, despite Google spending a reported $50 million on the purchase of the Social search engine just last year. Other products to be euthanized include Desktop, Fast Flip, Google Maps API for Flash, Google Pack, Google Web Security, Image Labeller, Notebook, Sidewiki and Subscribed Links. All are being shutdown due to low demand and full details about their intended closure dates are available in Google's blog post.
They join a growing list of Google operations shut down under Page's short era of leadership. In June they announced the closure of Google Health and the Google PowerMeter service. Google even closed down their mobile photo-sharing service Photovine just one week after launching it.
In ending his blog post, Eustace commented "We’ve never been afraid to try big, bold things, and that won’t change. We’ll continue to take risks on interesting new technologies with a lot of potential."
