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Google spring clean shuts down some more services

The big G has pulled the plug on some more services, so let's see what's getting the chop.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
2 min read

Google has a habit of pulling the plug on some of its services after a while, which is hardly surprising given the vast portfolio the company offers. It's now wielding the axe once more, putting the kibosh on a few services, as noted on the official Google Blog.

First up: Google Sync for BlackBerry will be no more, as of 1 June. The mobile web app for Google's instant messaging service Google Talk is also being shut down.

The Picasa Web Albums Uploader for Mac, and the Web Albums Plugin for iPhoto won't be available any longer, and there are no more updates for Picasa on Linux -- so bad news photo fans.

This one doesn't really apply to us Brits, unless you're going to the US sometime soon, but the Google Flu Vaccine Finder has also been laid to rest. (It mapped nearby vaccination places across the US during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.) But the HealthMap Flu Vaccine Finder will take that mantle.

What else, I hear you ask? Google Related, an experimental browsing assistant aimed at helping people find interesting and useful info while they surf, has been kicked up to the big research lab in the sky. One Pass, the payment platform for online news publishers, has also gone. Google says it's working with partners to replace it. The patent search homepage is now redirected to the regular old Google homepage.

So there you go -- a few changes, and no huge surprises, but they could potentially impact on your day-to-day usage. In the past, Google has waved goodbye to Wave, its collaborative inbox tool that we said was "like the band that sells more t-shirts than records", and Buzz, one of its early forays into social media. You can't accuse it of being complacent, I suppose.

"Making changes to products or services is hard, but we do need to maintain our focus if we are to do important things that matter in the world," wrote Matthias Schwab, director, Cloud Services, on the blog post.

Will you miss any of the above services? Or should Google kill off some others? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.