The removal of some of them were expected as they were a part of Google Labs. They had to be axed accordingly as Google had decided closing down Google Labs experiments. There have been rare products which have graduated out of the Labs and have successfully survived the chopping. However, the post related to those who were being chopped and the detailing of these products are made below.
First on the list was Google Fast Flip which saw its launch in 2009. this product was an efficient way of viewing the news on the web in an much more visual, print-like way. Fast Flip was born because of a statement made by Google’s Larry Page who questioned why the web articles could not be more like a magazine. But, now there has been a letter noting the participating publishers, wherein the search engine giant has said that this product would be removed “in the next few days” from Google News and Labs. The publishers will in a month’s time frame be contacted to confirm their final advertising revenue payment.
Next on the list is Google Sidewiki. Again it was launched in 2009 and allowed web surfers to comment on visited pages. For this, a user had to have the Google Toolbar installed and the “enhanced” features need to even be turned on. Subsequently, the comments would come up from the side in a separate panel. Google noted that this service would shut down, but it has provided the users with a few months to download their comments/content.
Aardvark is one social search service which did not pop-out of the Labs, but was acquired in early 2010. it was created by former Google employees. The process here would be as a user could ask Aardvark a question and the service would come up with the search results which includes the right person in one’s network who could have the possible answer to the question. The shutting down of this service might go down as a shock for many as it was named as one of TIME’s best websites of 2009. However, Aardvark’s blog post which came up today brought many people to reality as it was noted that the end of September would see Aardvark being shut down. The post even had instructions for those users who wish to retrieve their past data as they had to get it done before the service is shut down.
The last on the biggie list is Subscribed Links. 2006 had seen this service grow up as a baby. Subscribed Links allowed webmasters in creating custom links which could be used by the users to add them in their Google’s search results. The adoption of the service was real quick, but its development did not really happen as the response kept it down to to being just a niche product. It would close down on September 15th.
In a related development, a birdy update even noted that Google Desktop would even be axed on September 14th.