This ritual has become familiar. Google is constantly evaluating its array of products, and it seems every few months it announces a few more are being axed.
In a new blog post titled "Spring cleaning in summer," Google has revealed that Google Mini, Google Talk Chatback, Google Video and iGoogle are all slated to be discontinued.
- Google Mini was an enterprise search service which Google says offered redundant services that are found in other Google products. It'll be discontinued at the end of July.
The announcement comes less than three months after its last "spring cleaning," which led to Google Sync for BlackBerry, Google Related, the mobile web app for Google Talk and Google Flu Vaccine Finder being killed.
Google began shuttering a number of products last summer after the launch of Google+. A year ago, the company said it would "wind down" Google Labs. Last September, Google Desktop, Notebook, Fast Flip, Aardvark and Google Maps API for Flash were among the products that the company announced would be closed. Google Buzz was axed in October, and Google said it intended to kill Google Wave in November.
Google CEO Larry Page outlined his strategy to focus on "core products" in his 2012 Update to investors:
Last April, I began by reorganizing the management team around our core products to improve responsibility and accountability across Google. I also kicked off a big clean-up. Google has so many opportunities that, unless we make some hard choices, we end up spreading ourselves too thin and don’t have the impact we want. So we have closed or combined over 30 products, including projects like Knol and Sidewiki.
Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, who now works with Google Ventures, has been among those applauding the strategy, posting to Google+ after a wave of closures last fall: "Bravo! Keeping it simple and focusing on core products, love to see companies doing this."
Besides search, Google has been laser-focused on social, making continuous upgrades to its social network Google+, which recently eclipsed 250 million users.
And while not all have been on board with Google's approach to social, the company has said it's been pleased with its progress.
Will you miss any of the above products? Let us know in the comments.