Google Ends Its Igoogle, Chatback, Video, Mini and Symbian Search App

Google, the search engine giant, has decided to close down an array of its products that include Google Video, iGoogle, Google Talk Chatback and Google mini. Google revealed this news in a blog post titled “Spring Cleaning in Summer.”

Larry Page, who has just been awarded Google’s CEO crown, took this decision in an attempt to clean the house of all services that have become outmoded. On the official Google Blog post, the company gave the detailed reasoning behind this move and the schedule for five products being shut down.

Back in 2005 Google launched Google Mini, an enterprise search product, but it will be shut down by the end of this month. The company considers that the product’s functionality can be easily overlapped by Google Site Search, Google Search Appliance and Google Commerce Search.

Google Talk Chatback allows users to insert a Google Talk widget on their websites. However, the product is being discontinued and the company is now encouraging the users to use Meebo bar as an alternative. Last month, Meebo was acquired by Google.

Google Video will be shut down in August and the company will begin migrating videos to YouTube. Google has stopped uploading videos on Google Video since May 2009. Videos transferred by Google will be listed as private and can be managed through the YouTube Video manager.

iGoogle is going to retire next year in November. The major reason behind this shutdown is a proliferation of web and mobile apps – something which makes the service useless. The company advised users to adjust or export their data before time.

Lastly, Symbian Search App will also retire very soon. Google says it will entirely focus on its web search experience. The company advises its users to visit google.com and make it their homepage or bookmark it. Coming to web from the app will give users greater capabilities and web-wide improvements made by Google to facilitate them.