Google Graveyard: Even tech giants learns to fail and move on
The Google Graveyard is a list of products and services that Google has discontinued or shutdown over the years. Google is known for its innovation and experimentation with new ideas and technologies, and many of these products were created as part of that process. However, not all of them were successful, and as a result, they were laid to rest.
The Google Graveyard is a reminder that innovation is not always a straight line. Even a company with the resources and talent of Google can stumble and fail. However, these failures are also an essential part of the innovation process. By trying new things and taking risks, Google has been able to push the boundaries of what is possible and create products that have changed the world.
So, what are some of the products and services that have ended up in the Google Graveyard? Here are a few notable examples:
One of the earliest products to be laid to rest in the Google Graveyard was Google Lively. Lively was a virtual world similar to Second Life that allowed users to create avatars and interact with each other in a 3D environment. Despite the initial buzz around the product, it failed to gain traction and was discontinued after just a few months.
Another product that was discontinued was Google Buzz, a social networking service that was intended to compete with Facebook. Buzz was plagued with privacy concerns and was ultimately shut down after just a year of operation.
Picasa, an image organizer developed in 2002, was a popular one among designers and editors. Apart from viewing, organizing, and editing digital photos, it also offered an online platform to share photos and videos on the internet. However, losing popularity, it was scrapped thirteen years later.
Google Reader was another popular product that was discontinued, much to the dismay of its dedicated user base. Reader was an RSS feed aggregator and reader that allowed users to stay up-to-date on the latest news and information from their favorite websites. However, as social media began to take over as the primary way that people consumed news and information, Reader became less relevant, and Google eventually shut it down.
Perhaps the most high-profile product to be discontinued was Google Plus. Google Plus was a social networking service that was intended to compete with Facebook. Despite an initial surge in popularity, Google Plus was unable to gain traction and was ultimately shut down after several years of operation. The closure of Google Plus was a significant blow to Google’s ambitions in the social networking space.
Other products that have been discontinued over the years include Google Wave, a real-time collaboration tool for communication and document sharing, Google Glass, an experimental wearable device with a head-mounted display, Google Code, a source code hosting and collaborative development environment, and Google Notebook, a web-based application for note-taking and organization.
The Google Graveyard is a reminder that not all products and services are successful, even for a company as innovative and forward-thinking as Google. However, it is also a testament to Google’s willingness to take risks and try new things, even if they ultimately do not pan out. It is likely that the Google Graveyard will continue to grow in the years to come, as Google continues to experiment with new ideas and technologies.
