Google's biggest 'failures' as listed in Internet as on 18 September 2017

Started by Sudhakar, Sep 18, 2017, 10:57 AM

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Sudhakar

Google's biggest 'failures' as listed in Internet as on 18 September 2017

Now that the Apple euphoria has died down a bit, all eyes are on Google which will be unveiling its Pixel smartphones on October 4. There's a great sense of expectation from Google – perhaps its always there – to launch a smartphone which competition would be envious of. As a brand, Google is known for its collection of wildly popular products, from search to maps to Android, and now smartphones.

Although contrary to popular perception, the company certainly doesn't possess the Midas touch. In its arsenal, there have been a spate of failed products. Google Glass, which was supposed to wow the world, is notorious for making it to the Museum of Failure in Sweden. And who can forget Google Buzz, the company's much-touted social networking platform that almost failed to take off. Google's "miss" list includes many more.

Here's a list of Google products that failed to leave a mark...

Google Notebook was a precursor to Google Docs: You could copy and paste URLs or write notes that could be shared or published.

Google stopped development on Notebook in 2009 and officially shut it down in July 2012, transferring all data from Notebook to Google Docs.

iGoogle, a personalized homepage, was shut down in 2013. Created in 2005, iGoogle allowed users to customize their homepage with widgets.

Google said iGoogle wasn't needed as much anymore since apps could run on Chrome and Android.

Dodgeball, a service that let users check in at locations, was purchased by Google in 2005.

Its founders, which included Dennis Crowley, left Google seemingly on bad terms in 2007 and Crowley went on to build a very similar service, Foursquare, two years later.

Google Hangouts On Air — Google's live-streaming service — moved to YouTube Live in September 2016.

The service was originally created in 2012 when live streaming was catching on and was once used by President Obama and Pope Francis.

Google Catalogs, an interactive shopping program that digitized catalogs, was shut down in 2015.

Google shuttered the mobile version of Catalogs in 2013 and shut down the desktop version two years later.

Google Reader was a news-reading app that let users pull in stories from blogs or news sites.

Google announced it was shutting down Reader in March 2013 — much to users' dismay and outrage — and it was officially killed in July 2013.

Originally intended to give people access to health and wellness information, Google Health was closed for good in January 2012 after Google observed the service was "not having the broad impact that we hoped it would."

Google X, an alternative interface for the search engine, lasted exactly one day before Google pulled the plug.

A strange tribute to Mac OS X's dock, the site said: "Roses are red. Violets are blue. OS X rocks. Homage to you." Google X was quickly taken offline on March 16, 2005; the "X" name was soon repurposed as Google's research division.

Source : https://www.techgig.com/tech-news/Google-s-biggest-failures-126929?