Google Shuts Down 5 Services, including iGoogle

Google continues to clean the house: the Mountain View company announced the closure of five new services by 1 November 2013. Google Video, iGoogle or Google Mini will soon shut down.

Among the services that will be closed permanently soon, there is Google Mini, a search solution for websites launched in 2005. Been supplanted by other services like Google Search Appliance or Google Commerce Search, this paid solution for SMEs will cease to exist on 31 July.

Same fate for Google Talk Chatback, a widget that is integrated to a website, lets you communicate with visitors using Google Talk. The company is pushing its users to switch to the Meebo Bar, recently acquired by Google. July 31, the service will become non-operational.

On the side of applications, Google Symbian Search will cease to exist on the same day: Google wants to focus on a "Web mobile experience" on this platform.

On the services side, a little more known to the general public will soon be extinguished permanently, like the Google Video: the service is no longer accepting files from 2009, in favor of YouTube, but videos were nevertheless still visible. On August 20, the service will be permanently offline: you can download videos from one account, or transfer them to a YouTube account to avoid losing them.

Finally, iGoogle will be stopped on November 1, 2013: The personalized homepage with widgets and RSS feeds, launched in 2005, has become obsolete according to Google. "Users will have 16 months to adjust or export their data," says the firm.

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iGoogle not only made the possibility to create an animated background to the page but also to determine what information should appear in the first place by a series of widgets. And then the user could include information such as the latest headlines from their favorite medium or discover the proverb of the day, which was a good tool in use for me. But since it is been declared to be shut down, nothing could be done about it.

It is definitely a good move by Google. Three of those services are completely useless and waste of time. This move is a step in the right direction for giving quality services.

That would be good enough. They must have done this before. I am sure still ample of people are not aware of those services. I hope this is not going to affect Google Drive. iGoogle looks a bit lame. I was just having a look on the services that were disable among with Google Video and Google Talk Chatback are also included. This two things must stay as they are. They are quiet useful.