Oodles of Google News 2009

By Taylor Thomas Jan 15th, 2009

Google is trimming the fat today, and several of its services will stop being developed, others discontinued. Some of the services aren't going away altogether, but will change hands (hopefully the same fate of the 100 internal employees who are also losing Google status). But don't worry, even with 100 less recruiters and a few less services, Google is still hiring, and will continue to put effort and innovation in promising services. They've even released some new stuff this week, but let's take a look at the "bad" news first:

Google Notebook

The digital note pad that lets you clip and save your research easily (though I find Ctrl+C/V in a Word doc works well too) will no longer be developed. Current users will be able to hold on to previous notebooks and remember their research of yesteryear like a digital scrapbook.

Mashup Editor

Never heard of it? You must not have been part of the private beta test. While the test may not have completely failed, it certainly didn't make the grade, as Google bids it farewell.

Google Catalog Search

Google has done a good job of bringing all sorts of traditional print media to the digital era; magazines, newspapers, LIFE photographs, and books. Their catalog search (still in beta since 2001) won't be around for much longer.

Jaiku

The Google micro-blog hasn't caught on like Twitter, and won't be supported by Google anymore. CU l8r? The Jaiku code will be released into open source (Apache).

Dodgeball

Like Jaiku, this mobile social networking site (procured by Google) just isn't working out. Helping buds in over 22 cities by sharing locations over text isn't going anywhere. Grellan, just so you know, I'm at the office typing a blog. Dan and Wesley are here too, and they told me that Alex told them that Randi doesn't like you anymore.

Google Video

No huge surprise here, but since Google bought YouTube they don't have as much interest in their original video search and share service. While uploaded content isn't going anywhere soon, new uploads will cease in the near future. So you'll either have to remain silent, go to YouTube, or both.

Of course it's not all bad news, we also have heard of a new service those fellows at Google have been working on:

Google Earth Art

Masterpieces from the Prado Museum (Madrid, Spain) are viewable on Google Earth and Google Maps. The high resolution photos are of 14 works, each with 14 gigapixels, or 14,000 million pixels. The famous works were scanned using an in-room satellite and a tiny Google car, and include: