On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the company and the search engine that changed our lives, we decided to recall all the projects that Google began to develop, or that were already in use, but eventually found themselves in the company's well-known graveyard.
While some things we can say "what they thought," some made us wonder about the meaning of their "elimination." We've gone back to some of the notable assassinations.
Google's 25th Anniversary Photo: Reuters
The latest elimination: Google Podcasts
Just two days ago, Google announced the newest entrant to its infamous hit list – the company's podcast service, which is set to disappear in 2024. In a statement, Google said the service will be integrated as a feature into YouTube Music.
Google's podcast service will be permanently eliminated in 2024, Photo: Google
Google glasses Google's
augmented reality glasses held great promise for a future full of augmented reality, or so the company believed. Until March 2023, they were also sold to various organizations, but the project entered a state of partial stagnation already in 2015 and the company announced that it would not release new versions of the device.
These smart glasses presented a layer of information for the wearer, while their built-in camera was also used to take photos and video. The idea was innovative and looked great on the face of it, but combined with limited functions and their astronomical price, consumers quickly gave up the pleasure. This year, as mentioned, Google killed the project for good.
Google's smart glasses. Eliminated in 2023, Photo: Google
Google Stadia, Google's gaming service,
was launched in 2019 and had great predictions about it too. The service promised to bring top-notch games to almost every screen. Google thought it was such a great idea that it even hired big studio executives from competing companies to speed up game development on the platform. But, it didn't work.
Stadia's target market has never been entirely clear. Those who already owned consoles were in no hurry to switch their familiar platforms, while the strict requirements for joining scared away even those who might have considered it. Moreover, unlike Sony or Microsoft, Google also did not have a hardware/software package to compete in the competitive gaming world.
Ultimately, Stadia shut down in January 2023 in what was likely Google's highest-profile failure in recent years. Ouch.
Google Stadia. Eliminated in 2023, photo: Google
Google Hangouts We can't help but recall the COVID-2011 era and working from home, which shone a spotlight on remote call and meeting management software (hey Zoom and Tims
). At the same time, Google's complicated story with social media and chat apps has not been solved with the urgent need for employees to switch to remote work and Hangouts has not survived.
The service was launched in 2013 alongside Google Plus (which we will mention later), and in 2016 it became a separate platform. The app was simple, user-friendly, and more complete than most chat apps were at the time. Hangouts also allowed Google users to chat via SMS, voice messages and video chats. On the face of it, perfect.
Until 2022, Hangouts was Google's leading chat app. But with the emergence of successors in the form of Allo and Google Assistant, which has since been dismissed as a purely business service, Google was forced to announce the killing of Hangouts and its integration into its broader chat service. Hangouts was finally eliminated in <>.
Google Hangouts. Officially eliminated in 2022, photo: Google
Google Plus
: Remember when Google fought Facebook for social media supremacy? Well, the Internet does not forget. The platform, launched in 2011, wasn't Google's first serious attempt at creating a social media platform, but it was by far the most successful.
Like today's social platforms, Plus allowed users to post photos, short text updates and join groups with similar interests called "circles." Despite all the promising features and the numbers of joiners that were not too low, Google found that those users did not persist with the social network and abandoned it quite quickly.
In 2019, Google officially announced the liquidation of Plus.
Google Plus. Liquidated in 2019, photo: Google
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