Google To Ax Desktop, Notebook, Fast Flip, Aardvark And More

Google said in July that it would gradually close its Google Labs, a collection of experimental products and features.

On Friday, Google announced the fates of 10 such products: Desktop, Notebook, Fast Flip, Aardvark, Sidewiki, Google Maps API for Flash, Google Web Security, Google Pack, Image Labeler and Subscribed Links.

"All the Googlers working on these projects will be moved over to higher-impact products. As for our users, we'll communicate directly with them as we make these changes, giving sufficient time to make the transition and enabling them to take their data with them," Google's senior VP, Alan Eustace, wrote on the Official Google Blog.

Some of these products will end almost immediately, giving users little time to pull their data or choose a new service. Google said it will completely ax Desktop, "including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support," on September 14.

Notebook, a browser-based app for creating and storing documents, apparently has a longer lease on life (possibly months, according to Google). Once the service is closed, Google will fold all users' data from Notebooks into Google Docs.

Fast Flip, Google's news aggregator that featured a newspaper-like interface, will be shuttered "in the next few days," as reported by Search Engine Land. Google says that Fast Flip's notable features "will live on in our other display and delivery tools."

Social search service Aardvark, acquired by Google for $50 million in 2010, wrote on its own company blog on Friday that the service will cease before October. "In the spirit of data liberation, we want to make sure that any of you Aardvark users who would like to retrieve your past data from the service can do so," writes the Aardvark blog. As with Fast Flip, some of Aardvark's tools will be used to improve other Google products.

For more details about the rest of the products on the chopping block, visit the Google Blog.

Since Google debuted social network Google+ in June, the company has announced several other consolidations and plans for streamlining services. In late August, for example, All Things D reported that Slide, a social app maker that Google acquired for $200 million in 2010, would be shut down for good. In July, Mashable reported that Google plans to rebrand the Blogger blogging platform and Picasa photo-sharing site.

Quick Poll

Will you miss any of these products?

Yes

No

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[pablitop]

11:19 AM on 09/05/2011

I try to be less dependent on many applications. That way I still have my life when such applications are axed.

[Victor Zone]

11:16 AM on 09/05/2011

They have to remember, millions of people do not buy the Apple product, dont want small little piddly screens in a maze of apps, when they can use large screen computers and enjoy nice big clear images and legible fonts. I noticed, talking to friends, many people dont want to have to learn using new technology every 2 years and spend thousands in upgrades. The population is ageing, their memory and eyesight is fading their income is shrinking and cant afford the fancy new stuff.

[Victor Zone]

11:06 AM on 09/05/2011

As long as they dont mess with Gmail and GoogleMaps which I use most days, Im ok with it.

[GoogleMaster]

04:39 AM on 09/05/2011

not the desktop. no.

[pnowak1]

03:07 AM on 09/05/2011

Nooooooo. I'm going to miss Google Fast Flip. I used to use it everyday. My organization teaches speed reading classes and we used to recommend this site as a great way to read things on the web faster. Since Google Fast Flip is now gone, we're going to try and revive a similar service and create something new here: http://www.irisreading.com/fastflip

[mangafreak2128]

05:58 PM on 09/04/2011

Shame of Google for ending so many great products. I use many little known Google products and many are now getting the ax.

[jabreal00]

02:22 PM on 09/04/2011

There are a bunch of geeks over at Google that make products that aren't intuitive and overly convoluted. Gmail is great because of conversations but other than that it's horrible for organization. All my work related, bills, etc I use for Yahoo because I can make folders and commands to send certain mail to their folders automatically. Gmail I use strictly to communicate with friends.

[mangafreak2128]

05:57 PM on 09/04/2011

You can do all of that in gmail. Just mess around with the settings a bit.

[jabreal00]

11:58 AM on 09/05/2011

It's convoluted and not very intuitive to use it on Gmail. The labels are just a complete joke. Yahoo >>>Google for organizing mail.

[Victor Zone]

11:10 AM on 09/05/2011

I agree. I LOVE Yahoo files to keep my data for long periods of time. Gmail google labels dont work for me, labels are not functional, hard to store and find stuff. I like to have the old fashioned filing system where I know I will find my stored docs.

[Ayesha Khan]

12:12 PM on 09/04/2011

I was reading about these features that Google is planning to remove and i think that its a very prudent step, as all these Features were unnecessary and they were making the users extremely frustrated, Methods of much closer communication with the users is the most effective idea as there are times when the users remain with so many queries that remain unresolved. Google will be replacing these features with much better and advanced one's, which surely will be more popular and will build a bridge between its users for better outcomes---

[Jacquel Chiraco]

11:01 AM on 09/04/2011

Google's problem, ironically for a company that thrives on advertising, is that it does not spend enough to promote its own products. There is just so much that can be accomplished by blog releases or website postings. In addition, many of the applications are either above the average user's grasp, or level of relevance.

[mc hesher]

08:06 AM on 09/04/2011

What did Google ax 'em?

[Rambling Ruminations]

06:35 AM on 09/04/2011

Well, they are not ending Gmail Lab features. That's all I care about.

[danlv2]

11:54 PM on 09/03/2011

I've switched to Bing for web search at least to try it out. It is somewhat inferior to google but for 90% of my searches gets adequate results. It just makes me a little bit nervous that one company has so much control over the Internet, especially one that is rated low on its privacy policies and it keeps asking for my phone number every time I log in to my "anonymous" gmail account.

[jabreal00]

02:23 PM on 09/04/2011

Yeah, I hate that it's prefaced as a security feature. That's just hogwash.

[viennawoods]

11:46 PM on 09/03/2011

I'm losing my google desktop sidebar? I'm not happy.

[GOP Lie Detector]

10:58 PM on 09/03/2011

Thankfully the Chromebook project is alive and well.

[pdxist]

09:59 PM on 09/03/2011

Flag this spam.