On Tuesday, Google announced that as a part of the latest batch of product closures, it is going to discontinue the mini enterprise search appliance, iGoogle. Giving 16 months’ time to iGoogle users to learn to use something else, Google decided to kill it off on November 1, 2013.
At one point iGoogle has accounted for 20% of all visits to Google Home page. Google said since the web and mobile are changing, and “with modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time.”
Google Talk chatback, Google Video, Google mini and Symbian search app were there in the list of products which google will discontinue in a very short period.
Google mini will be discontinued on July 31st. Its functionality can be better provided by products like Google site search, Google commerce search and Google search appliance.
“We will of course continue to provide technical support to Mini customers for the duration of their contracts, and will reach out to them shortly with more details,” wrote Matt Eichner, general manager of Global Enterprise Search, in a blog post.
Google Chat back that lets web publishers plant a google talk widget on their sites to communicate with the visitors or customers was discontinued and the users were recommended to use meebo.
Google Video users will have until August 20 to migrate, download or delete their content. “We’ll then move all remaining Google Video content to YouTube as private videos that users can access in the YouTube video manager,” wrote Matt Eichner.
Google will also soon be retiring Symbian Search App. Google said “We encourage you to go to www.google.com and make it your homepage or bookmark it”.
Eichner says “Streamlining our services enables us to focus on creating beautiful technology that will improve people’s lives.”
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