Google has been shutting down some some of its products and divisions over the past few months, including most recently the Slide social apps division. Today the company announced plans to shut down 10 more of its products over the coming weeks and months. Some of these products will be merged with other existing Google divisions. Google"s Senior Vice President Alan Eustace writes, "This will make things much simpler for our users, improving the overall Google experience. It will also mean we can devote more resources to high impact products—the ones that improve the lives of billions of people." The people who worked on the 10 discontinued products will be transferred to other divisions at the company.
One of the more well known products that will soon be shut down is Google Desktop, which launched in a beta version in 2004. The application allows users to search for items inside a person"s PC. Google has chosen to discontinue Google Desktop on September 14 "including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support." A product on the list that has already shut down is Google Pack, which offered a collection of first and third party downloadable software tools in one package. Google said today that with the move to have applications offered online via cloud-based technology there was also a "declining interest in downloadable software."
Other projects that Google will shut down or merge will other projects include the social search program Aardvark, Google Web Security, Google Notebook, Fast Flip, Sidewiki, Subscribed Links, Image Labeler, and Google Maps API for Flash.