Google’s habit of killing its products is a meme by this point. Many of them were short-lived, but the company has been known to throw out widely used and much-loved services years after they debut and have accrued a significant following. While most of us probably didn’t even realize there was a Google Shopping app when news of its demise landed last week, the Google graveyard is massive, and I bet there’s at least one app or service you miss.
Google’s tendency to kill even successful products has led some of us (including myself) to be wary of the company’s more recent offerings, and even diversify beyond a reliance on Google’s existing products. Recent products like the cloud game-streaming service Stadia, which Google claims to be committed to, have both developers and customers worried about its future — Google’s even stopped making in-house games for Stadia, so how much can we trust it to stick around? Whether or not these sorts of worries are really supported by current evidence, Google’s track record speaks for itself.
It’s worth pointing out that some of what Google has killed was done in our best interests. Things like the forced Google+ integration in YouTube and Google Clips were just pointless. Other efforts like Project Tango and Project Ara were simply misguided and doomed to fail on their own if dragged out. But the forced retirement of services like Google Reader and Inbox upset millions of customers.
Depending on where and how you draw the line, there are a lot of things Google has killed over the years — 227 so far, according to Killed by Google. Our poll can’t feasibly encompass them all, but we have pulled in a handful of the more popular services. You can only vote once, so choose carefully.
