Over the past couple of years, Google has used its official blog to announce the closure of a number of projects and software products. This usually happens every few months and today, Google used the blog to announce it will pull the curtain down on quite a few projects.
One of the products that Google is retiring is Google Reader, which it launched in 2005 as a way for users to display content from other website on one page, usually by accessing the site"s RSS feed. Google said today, "While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined." It will shut down on July 1st.
The software plug-in Google Cloud Connect will shut down on April 30th. It was set up as a way for users to save Microsoft Office files automatically to Google Drive from Windows PCs. Google says that installing the Google Drive desktop client does the same thing as Google Cloud Connect.
Google Building Maker, which let users make 3D buildings for Google Earth and Google Maps, will also be discontinued on June 1st, and Google will end support for its Google Voice App for Blackberry next week. The company has now stopped sales and updates for the Snapseed photo software for Macintosh and Windows, with immediate effect.
For the programmers out there, Google will stop offering its Search API for Shopping on September 16th, and its CalDAV API will be unavailable on the same day, except for whitelisted developers. Finally the GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets will close on September 16th.
Source: Google blog | Image via Google