Advertisement

Article

Google announces shutdown dates for apps

Nick

Nick

  • Updated:

Google has announced definitive dates for the closure of several web apps including Wave, Gears and Knol.

Google says the apps ‘haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for’ and although it had already announced closure of them, specific dates have now been set as follows:

  • Google Wave: As of January 31st, 2012 will be read-only. April 30 will be shutdown completely.
  • Google Gears: On December 1st, 2011 Gears will stop working. Later in the month it will be no longer be available to download.
  • Google Knol: Google’s answer to Wikipedia will work up until April 30 2012. From May 1st to October 1st 2012 Knols will no longer be viewable although they can be downloaded. After October 1st it will no longer be available. An open source project called Annotum is being developed to host the content.
  • Google Bookmarks List: Will end of December 19th, 2011. Bookmarks within lists will be retained and labelled for easier identification.
  • Google Friend Connect: Will be retired for all non-Blogger sites on March 1st, 2012. Users are encouraged to create a Google+ page instead.

In addition, Google Search Timeline and Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal will end although no specific date has been issued for either.

Most of these apps have been made redundant by the arrival of Google+ but it’s also an acknowledgement by Google that sometimes things don’t work out as well as they hoped.

Nick

Nick

Latest from Nick

Editorial Guidelines