I’ll start by clarifying again that no, Google has not entered the funeral home market. And it’s because if we were touring the holy field a few months ago, where Microsoft products and services that are no longer with us rest, today we’re going on a similar tour, but this time with Google as the protagonist. And let me tell you in advance that if the list of those from Redmond were quite large, Google is not far behind either.

On the contrary, a search engine company is known for not shaking its pulse when pulling out scissors. If something doesn’t work out, hopefully you get a second, but a short chance, in other cases not. A quick look at the unofficial website that compiles this list tells us they are not less than 267, and it is possible that some others have been omitted. So it is impossible to evaluate all the inhabitants of this holy field, so instead we will remember some of the most memorable. If you miss one, share it in the comments.

Google Hangouts (2013-2022): Just yesterday, we learned that a search engine company will end Hangouts next November. Not surprisingly, the company has decided to move users to Google Talk, so we’re facing a predicted death that will take effect in a few months.

GoogleReader (2005-2013): I admit it’s a wound I haven’t recovered from. It was the best aggregator and RSS / Atom feed reader at the time, and even though I understand that its user community was not as large as many of us thought, it was a service that its users highly appreciated. Alternatives like Feedly have benefited the most from this closure, but some of us still lack it.

Gafas Google (2013-2015) a OS Glass (2013-2017): Probably one of the projects that raised the most expectations and which eventually “clicked” more sharply. These augmented reality glasses have brought the notion of “wearable” to everyone’s mouths, and although not for them, they have opened the door to the emerging market of connected devices that accompany us every day. Good glass!

Google Wave (2009-2012): A search engine company decided to transform instant messaging and create a platform in which this service could be supplemented with many very useful features. I still remember that after the first try, a friend defined it as a “Messenger on steroids” and it seemed like a very precise definition. Although this is a very interesting proposal, it has only been a few months since it was opened to the general public on 19 May 2010 before it announced a suspension on 4 August of the same year. All content was removed in 2012.

Google Labs (2002-2011): for about ten years, this laboratory became a reference point for all fans of “chipping”, as it made it possible to test a lot of experimental functions that could later, but also not be implemented. . You almost felt like one of the company’s engineers.

ARA project (2013-2016): I admit that, although it seemed very complicated from the beginning, too much, it was a project that always appealed to me for a number of reasons, from self-adaptation to better use of resources, because thanks to its modularity, it would be possible to update the hardware of this smartphone by replacing only the necessary components and leaving the rest.

Google Desktop (2008-2011): An app that appealed to privacy advocates and opponents of the company, bringing search functionality to the local level by allowing you to index and search all of your computer’s content. If you had it installed, local results were also displayed when performing an online search.

Picasa (2002-2015): One of the best photo catalog managers ever. It was bought by Google in 2004 and was very popular during the first years. It allowed viewing, organizing, editing and was also cross-platform. However, at the beginning of the last decade, the company decided to focus on Google Photos and eventually abolished Picasa.

Inbox by Gmail (2015-2019): Ten years after the email revolution with Gmail and its overflowing gigabyte capacity, Google wanted to “rediscover” the email client with some new productivity features. However, his reception was colder than expected (and it was initially available by invitation only) and eventually disappeared four years later.

Orkut (2004-2014): Named after the company’s engineer who invented it, it was Google’s first social network. And the fact that he used his name was not because of his ego, but because in his original conception he intended that only those people who already had contact inside should have access to the service, by invitation. However, the possibility to issue unlimited invitations caused the forums to multiply with the request for them. Few remember it, but he was born a few days before Facebook.

googlebuzz (2010-2011): The company’s second failed attempt in the world of social networking, this was the shortest of the experiments that ended in nothing.

Google+ (2011-2019): and there are not two without three, and in this case we can not deny society perseverance, because with a few changes in between, it has tried for no less than eight years. However, the poor reception of the service since its launch never returned, so the company eventually decided to close it.

These are just some examples, and as I mentioned in the case of Microsoft, we should not see this other than as a clear sign of commitment to research and innovation. Sometimes it’s going well, sometimes it doesn’t work, and sometimes there are other interests that prevail more, but it’s undeniable that over the years, some very successful projects have emerged from Google’s engineering offices and rooms, and others that, despite this, have at least tried.