Some Google dodos
November 23rd 2011 02:32
One thing about Google, if a product doesn't work, they get rid of it and try something else. In the digital world this is easy as, of course, and the only cost is the time and labour it took to set up the product in the first place.
So, this week, Google has given notice that a number of non-starters are biting the dust: Google Wave, for one, that seemingly exciting concept that just never excited anyone. Also going is the Friend Connect service that predated Google . My suspicion is that Google will eventually go as well; even though it's got a number of users, it's just come too late into the scene to compete with Facebook, however much people complain about the latter.
The Google Timeline feature vanished almost without fanfare, and some social media aspects of Google ReaderYour text goes here have also gone recently - in this case with some backlash from the users. If you don't use a particular programme you don't miss it of course. If you've invested quite a bit of time in it, of course it's another story.
There are other less well-known items that have gone, including Knol, a would-be Wikipedia that just never made the grade. Knol was launched in 2007 to help improve web content by enabling experts to collaborate on in-depth articles.[Does this already sound like some other site?] Google has now created Annotum, an open-source scholarly authoring and publishing platform based on WordPress.
Knol will work as usual until April 30, 2012, and you can download your knols to a file and/or migrate them to WordPress.com. From May 1 through October 1, 2012, knols will no longer be viewable, but can be downloaded and exported. After that time, Knol content will no longer be accessible.
Annotum comes with some high expectations; whether it will fulfil these, or whether it too will go the way of the dodo, is yet to be seen.
So, this week, Google has given notice that a number of non-starters are biting the dust: Google Wave, for one, that seemingly exciting concept that just never excited anyone. Also going is the Friend Connect service that predated Google . My suspicion is that Google will eventually go as well; even though it's got a number of users, it's just come too late into the scene to compete with Facebook, however much people complain about the latter.
The Google Timeline feature vanished almost without fanfare, and some social media aspects of Google ReaderYour text goes here have also gone recently - in this case with some backlash from the users. If you don't use a particular programme you don't miss it of course. If you've invested quite a bit of time in it, of course it's another story.
There are other less well-known items that have gone, including Knol, a would-be Wikipedia that just never made the grade. Knol was launched in 2007 to help improve web content by enabling experts to collaborate on in-depth articles.[Does this already sound like some other site?] Google has now created Annotum, an open-source scholarly authoring and publishing platform based on WordPress.
Knol will work as usual until April 30, 2012, and you can download your knols to a file and/or migrate them to WordPress.com. From May 1 through October 1, 2012, knols will no longer be viewable, but can be downloaded and exported. After that time, Knol content will no longer be accessible.
Annotum comes with some high expectations; whether it will fulfil these, or whether it too will go the way of the dodo, is yet to be seen.
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