When a company has as many successful products as Google, you get the impression that everything they touch turns to gold.
Well, it doesn�t.
I�m Donald Bell, and in this episode of Top 5 we�re going to take a look back at some Google products that didn�t live up to their expectation.
-------- BODY -------- Number five harkens back to an era when the Internet was crazy about Second Life Google wasn�t going to be left behind, so they made this.
They called it Lively, and the reason you�ve never heard of it is because Google pulled the plug after just 6 months.
At #4, Google Buzz.
Aside from the fact that nobody knew why they needed Google�s awkward social network, it was a privacy nightmare right out of the gate.
One of CNETs most popular articles on Google Buzz, was on how to turn it off.
Number 3 is going to get me some hate mail, but I�m giving it to Google�s Android 3 tablet OS, Honeycomb.
It was supposed to be Google�s iPad killer, but it took almost a year before it ran on a tablet that wasn�t clunky, overpriced, or wrapped in a two-year contract.
At that point, Android app developers were already pinning their hopes on Android 4. At #2, Google Wave.
Google took everything they did well: email, instant messaging, and collaboration, and they built a glorious mashup that couldn�t fail.
This still gives me headaches when I look at it.
They should have named it Google Titanic.
Now before we get to our #1 Google flop and before you start feeling too bad for Google, let�s just take a brief look at a few of the hundreds of crazy successful Google products that you probably use every day.
A company like this can afford to fail a few times, but I�m sure this number one still burns a bit.
Google TV.
You have to admire the stones it took to launch this without nailing down the major content deals ahead of time.
And poor Logitech.
Their reward for making Google�s set top box was $100 million dollars in lost profits.
Alright, that does it for this Top 5. For more videos like these go to Top5.
CNET.com, or just Google it.
I'm Donald Bell, thanks for watching.
