Google continues its efforts to streamline its business, announcing on its blog site this week that a number of its services will be closed over the next several months. One of them is Google Wave which launched as a web app for real time communication. Google has now announced that Wave will become read only after January 31, 2012 and will close completely after April 30.
Google Gears, which was designed as a way to make offline web apps via a browser extension will stop working on December 1 for Gears-based Gmail and Calendar offline. Later that same month the Gears browser extension won"t be made available for download at all.
Google Bookmark List, created to allow people to share their browser bookmark list with friends, will shut down on December 19. Google says, "All bookmarks within Lists will be retained and labeled for easier identification, while the rest of Google Bookmarks will function as usual."
Google is also closing down its experimental energy division, which it called Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal. Google concentrated its efforts on improving solar power but has now decided that "other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level." The company will continue its own efforts to conserve energy and use alternative energy sources in its own businesses.