Take a stroll through the Google graveyard
In a couple of days, Google will pull the plug on Reader, its still much beloved RSS feed reading service, leaving dedicated users seeking refuge in the arms of Feedly, AOL Reader, Digg Reader, and numerous other alternatives.
There’s sadly no chance of a last minute reprieve. When Google decides to kill a service, it kills it. The company’s history is littered with such casualties -- great and not-so great ideas that for one reason or another just didn’t connect with a large enough audience or achieve the level that Google had hoped for.
To commemorate some of the many products and services that the web giant has killed off over the years WordStream has put together what has to be one of my all-time favorite infographics.
The Gooooooogle Graveyard -- A Resting Place for Great Ideas, covers the likes of Reader, iGoogle, Google Talk, Google Health, Knol, Buzz, Notebook, Labs, Dodgeball, Lively, and Google Answers. In total WordStream covers 20 services, some you’ll remember fondly and will no doubt have used, while others might have you scratching your head and wondering why you don’t recall them.
The graphic provides a little piece of information on each service, a screen-shot, and of course a gravestone marking the month and year (or just the year) when that little piece of Google history shuffled off this digital coil.
How many of these featured products have you used? Any you still mourn for?
