Wow, a lot of these are ridiculous or silly. I welcome corrections to my list. If you object and think it should be listed as Dead, that's fine, that's your opinion, and I respect it. To me, some of these are absurd to list as Dead. Here's my list:
Google Showtimes, yeah, now it's built in to search.
Google Nexus, yeah, now it's Pixel phones.
Nexus Player, yeah, now it's Chromecast / Android TV / Aria.
Google X, it was re-orged, and not consumer-facing anyway.
Picasa is kind of odd to complain about, because Google Photos is better in almost every way.
Google Play edition of Android phone, yeah, phone models go away all the time.
Google TV is kind of odd to complain about, because now there's Chromecast / Android TV, and Youtube TV.
Google Chrome Frame, we should celebrate IE dying.
Nexus Q, yeah, it's now Chromecast / Android TV.
Google Chart API is still running, unless I'm mistaken.
Google Video... Yeah, now it's YouTube. Why are we complaining about this?
Google Sky Map was donated and made open source, is now "Sky Map". This is a victory.
Noop Programming Language. Come on. It was literally two engineers. I'm all for holding Google accountable for killing things we love (Google Reader, chief among them), but this is ridiculous. It's also open source.
Google Dictionary, it's not folded in to Search.
Google Real-Time Search is basically folded in to Search, right?
Google Hotspot is now folded in to Maps, right?
Google Ride Finder is now folded in to Maps, right? At least Uber and Lyft are, right?
Grand Central is basically rebranded as Voice, right?
Google Page Creator is basically Google Sites, right?
Encrypted Search is listed as "Killed" because Google started redirecting encrypted.google.com to the homepage... now all queries are encrypted by default, instead of only those originating from that subdomain [1].
I asked in the Stadia announcement thread "How many years until its canceled and our game libraries erased from all existence?" I got downvoted and someone likened my comment to making fun of the fat kid at the gym. I was like, when did this become hail corporate? Its not like Stadia is some type of new year's resolution, but then again, Google will probably drop it as quickly if it becomes unprofitable.
Since my beloved Zeit has decided to go all Lambda, I need to move my hosting somewhere. It struck me that even though Google is a very big player here, I am worried that they might do something similar so I am much more inclined to look at AWS or Azure. This, I guess, is a price they are paying for this culture of exploration and pivots that I otherwise consider healthy in many ways.
I came here to make a similar comment. Google has the institutional attention span of a goldfish and I'm going to wait a few years to see if they actually stick with Stadia before getting my hopes up.
It is considered a pretty big deal in the gaming industry, specially if they do leverage all the YouTube infrastructure they have like they say. We will see about that one.
Yeah, Google shuts off unpopular, unsuccesful projects. So what? Most of the ones listed are literally useless and/or outdated relics of the past which have been replaced by something better. Google is a business after all, not a charity. They don't want to maintain an useless project from 2005 written using who knows what technology stack.
If Stadia becomes mainstream and acquires a lot of users, they won't kill it off as it will be profitable.
If it has an user count of 500 in two years, it will be gutted, why support an unprofitable product?
I don't think it's a bad thing for a company to try out new products and services to see what sticks, then kill off ones that aren't working, the alternative is to stagnate and slowly die out. It does sting as a consumer when something you use is killed off.
Some of these were killed off because the functionality was added to other products. I was an Inbox user until the app warned me it would be discontinued recently, but all the features were added to the Gmail app.
Except Inbox was so much better. Gmail is so heavy for what I want from email. Also, Inbox grouped emails related to a trip and showed a summary of the trip, from what I can see Gmail doesn't do this.
There aren't many Google Products that I really missed (or even used) that are on that suspicious site[0] (and echoed by a news source w/o verification) except for Reader.
You are right: for Reader, someone didn't just fill the need, many different someones filled that need. Honestly didn't miss a beat when Reader was shut down. The alternative, non-BigTech solutions, have been awesome.
[0] I say suspicious because the coder acknowledges that he created the site out of anger over Inbox. As a result, he has lost objectivity and it shows.
[+] [-] VikingCoder|7 years ago|reply
Tez was rebranded, it didn't die.
Encrypted Search basically replaced unencrypted search.
Chromebook Pixel, yeah, now it's a Pixelbook.
Google Showtimes, yeah, now it's built in to search.
Google Nexus, yeah, now it's Pixel phones.
Nexus Player, yeah, now it's Chromecast / Android TV / Aria.
Google X, it was re-orged, and not consumer-facing anyway.
Picasa is kind of odd to complain about, because Google Photos is better in almost every way.
Google Play edition of Android phone, yeah, phone models go away all the time.
Google TV is kind of odd to complain about, because now there's Chromecast / Android TV, and Youtube TV.
Google Chrome Frame, we should celebrate IE dying.
Nexus Q, yeah, it's now Chromecast / Android TV.
Google Chart API is still running, unless I'm mistaken.
Google Video... Yeah, now it's YouTube. Why are we complaining about this?
Google Sky Map was donated and made open source, is now "Sky Map". This is a victory.
Noop Programming Language. Come on. It was literally two engineers. I'm all for holding Google accountable for killing things we love (Google Reader, chief among them), but this is ridiculous. It's also open source.
Google Dictionary, it's not folded in to Search.
Google Real-Time Search is basically folded in to Search, right?
Google Hotspot is now folded in to Maps, right?
Google Ride Finder is now folded in to Maps, right? At least Uber and Lyft are, right?
Grand Central is basically rebranded as Voice, right?
Google Page Creator is basically Google Sites, right?
Writely became Google Docs, right?
[+] [-] panarky|7 years ago|reply
Tech companies quit, rename, reorganize and merge products all the time. Is Google particularly worse than other tech firms?
I can think of some pretty big Microsoft pivots, and I don't begrudge them their choices at all.
Media Center
Kinect
Zune
PlaysForSure DRM
Microsoft Money
Windows Home Server
Microsoft Kin Phone
Microsoft Mobile, previously known as Nokia
Windows 10 Mobile
The Band
TechNet
Hotmail
Live Messenger
Live Mesh
Groove Music Pass
Android and iOS versions of Groove Music
Encarta
Windows Small Business Server
Flight Simulator
Microsoft Works
Microsoft FrontPage
Windows Embedded Automotive, formerly Microsoft Auto, Windows CE for Automotive, Windows Automotive, and Windows Mobile for Automotive
[+] [-] sanxiyn|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] therealarmen|7 years ago|reply
I'd say that's an upgrade.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search#Dedicated_encryp...
[+] [-] Navarr|7 years ago|reply
For example, it lists the Google Glass OS and Google Glass separately - and the latter is still an enterprise product.
Hardware models are listed (Nexus phones, Chromecast Audio, Chromebook Pixel)
[+] [-] edtechdev|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r00fus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bashwizard|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stillbourne|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kristiandupont|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] debacle|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minikites|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cyborgx7|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Wohlf|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qwerty9876|7 years ago|reply
Yeah, Google shuts off unpopular, unsuccesful projects. So what? Most of the ones listed are literally useless and/or outdated relics of the past which have been replaced by something better. Google is a business after all, not a charity. They don't want to maintain an useless project from 2005 written using who knows what technology stack.
If Stadia becomes mainstream and acquires a lot of users, they won't kill it off as it will be profitable. If it has an user count of 500 in two years, it will be gutted, why support an unprofitable product?
[+] [-] Wohlf|7 years ago|reply
Some of these were killed off because the functionality was added to other products. I was an Inbox user until the app warned me it would be discontinued recently, but all the features were added to the Gmail app.
[+] [-] micael_dias|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] basch|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sct202|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] O1111OOO|7 years ago|reply
There aren't many Google Products that I really missed (or even used) that are on that suspicious site[0] (and echoed by a news source w/o verification) except for Reader.
You are right: for Reader, someone didn't just fill the need, many different someones filled that need. Honestly didn't miss a beat when Reader was shut down. The alternative, non-BigTech solutions, have been awesome.
[0] I say suspicious because the coder acknowledges that he created the site out of anger over Inbox. As a result, he has lost objectivity and it shows.
[+] [-] bookofjoe|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moocowtruck|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tazard|7 years ago|reply