Google announced that it will shut down five services today, and two of the most noteworthy include Google Video and iGoogle.
Google Video has been on its way out for a while now having stopped accepting uploads in 2009, and most users hosting content on the service already received notifications to move their content to YouTube. The Google Video team has since worked on video search, and Google even outlined in a blog post today its plans for the service. Google Video will officially close “later this summer”:
Later this summer, all remaining hosted video on Google Video will be moved to YouTube. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re moving the remaining hosted content to YouTube as private videos. Google Video users can rest assured that you won’t be losing any of your content as it will be fully available on YouTube, and you can choose to make those videos public on YouTube if you’d like.
Google explained users will have the opportunity to manually migrate or delete their content by August 20:
If you would prefer to migrate, delete or download your content yourself, you can do so by visiting the Google Video status page prior to August 20, 2012. After the videos have been moved, you can access all of your videos by visiting the YouTube Video Manager.
As for iGoogle and the remaining services, including Google Mini, Google Talk Chatback, and the Symbian Search App, Google made a brief an announcement for each:
-The Google Mini has been an important part of our Enterprise Search offering since it was first introduced in 2005. It’s had a good run, but beginning July 31 we’re discontinuing the product because its functionality can be better provided by products like Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search and Google Commerce Search. We will of course continue to provide technical support to Mini customers for the duration of their contracts, and will reach out to them shortly with more details.
–Google Talk Chatback allowed websites to embed a Google Talk widget so that they could engage with their visitors. It’s now outdated, so we’re turning off Chatback and encouraging websites to use the Meebo bar.
-On November 1, 2013, iGoogle will be retired. We originally launched iGoogle in 2005 before anyone could fully imagine the ways that today’s web and mobile apps would put personalized, real-time information at your fingertips. With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time, so we’ll be winding it down. Users will have 16 months to adjust or export their data.
-We’ll soon be retiring our Symbian Search App to focus our efforts on our mobile web search experience. We encourage you to go to www.google.comand make it your homepage or bookmark it. Switching from the app to the web experience will enable users to make the most of the web-wide improvements we make for search all the time.
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