Updated on December 10, 2021
Recently, Google’s announced a competing service to popular note-taking app Evernote, called “Google Keep.” With the recent news of Google shutting down Reader, there’s some concern about the longevity of other Google services with their “spring cleaning” bouts. Thus, I thought I’d give my guesses on which Google services might eventually bite the “spring cleaning” dust. My guesses are based on the assumption that Google’s core services/business interests consist of: search; advertising; social media data-mining (Google+); and Android (and other mobile services). Please note I have nothing against the items below—just guessing what Google might suddenly lose interest in someday…
Blogger/Blogspot
Google doesn’t seem to have done a huge amount with Blogspot over the years. While it’s still one of the most popular blog hosting services online, I wonder how well it really fits with Google’s current business models, or if they’ll decide it’s not worth trying to compete with WordPress.com, Tumblr, etc.
Google Keep
We already have Evernote and a myriad of other note-taking apps for Android and iOS—I don’t see the point in Google trying to introduce Keep, especially given it doesn’t really tie into the above-mentioned businesses. I suppose they could try to make it a part of Android or Google+ somehow, but it still seems like another future “spring cleaning” “yard sale” candidate.
Chrome OS/Chromebooks
Yes, there’s currently plenty of TV advertising for Google’s Chromebook netbooks (running the Chrome web browser-based ChromeOS). Still, with the shift away from netbooks in favor of tablets and smartphones running Google’s own Android (and Android being a huge success/the most successful Linux variant among the general public), offering a new netbook line running a non-standard OS seems like a long shot. (The general public didn’t care for Linux on their netbooks, wanting instead XP…) There’s reports, however, of schools being interested, plus Chromebooks might be useful for where just a web browser is needed (public libraries, etc.). Chromebooks’ reliance on the “cloud” (Google’s services) might also keep up Google’s interest, or at least keep them from giving up on quite as quickly.
Orkut
Orkut was a previous attempt at a social network by Google, but it never took off in the US. Orkut gained popularity in India and Brazil, however. While I wonder why Google didn’t just try to work at reviving/revamping Orkut for the US market instead of creating Google+ from scratch, I can see Google someday shutting down (or selling off) Orkut and migrating users to Google+.
Google Groups
Originally a Web-based Usenet archive service called “Deja News,” Google bought Deja, then tried to turn it into some mix of Usenet and customized discussion forums, before…ignoring it in recent years. With Google+ around and Usenet unpopular nowadays, I could see Google selling off or shutting down Google Groups.
Google Voice
A voice mail/phone number re-routing service? Sounds like another “cleaning” candidate to me…
