Google: other products to be closed

Google continues to clean up their products and services. Among the victims is iGoogle and Google Video.

Even though it’s not really the season, Google has continued with their spring cleaning. The company is rationalizing and any products or services that don’t fit with their strategy are on their way out. The products are considered as obsolete or are being merged into other programs.

Google Video is one of these and it is hardly surprising, with YouTube now reigning. Since 2009, this service didn’t even accept new online video postings. Users who still have videos hosted on Google Video have until the 20th of August 2012 to download, delete or migrate their content to another service.

After this date, these videos will be automatically migrated to YouTube. The videos will be configured as private videos which users can access via the YouTube video manager.

On the 1st of November 2012, iGoogle will also be taken offline (and the 31st of July 2012 for its mobile version). Launched in 2005, iGoogle is Google’s customisable Web portal which provides a range of news streams and gadgets.

Google justifies this closure through users lack of interest with the arrival of Web and mobile applications (like for Google Chrome and Android) which "put real time news and personalized information at users fingertips".

The other services to be sacrificed are Google Mini, Google Talk Chatback (replaced by the Meebo bar) and the Google Symbian Search application.