Google Shuts Down Google Answers - What’s Next?

December 2nd, 2006 • Related • Filed Under

I’ve always thought that Google have too many projects running, and it looks like they are starting to shut down the no-hopers. After being trounced by Yahoo! Answers, Google this week shut down Google Answers.

Valleywag are running a poll to see what people think will be next. Apparently at the last count, Google had 85 services on the go. Far too many in my view, but I guess some of them were never expected to make it out of Google Labs.

I met one of the developers for Google Reader over the summer while I was at Google to discuss another potential project, and he explained that all Google developers have a 80% project which is their day job, and a 20% project that is their plaything unless it finds a commercial application and ‘graduates’. When I said that I was interested in finding a way to launch Google Reader, you should have seen his face light up at the prospect of getting a commercial sponsor!

All I can say is that I hope Gmail is put out of its misery soon and taken out of Google labs. I don’t know what I would do for an alternative email service if Google ever decided to give up on breaking Yahoo’s and Hotmail’s stranglehold of the email market. But some services like Blogger, Google Talk, Picasso etc which haven’t made any serious advancements over the last year must be at risk.

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Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, and currently runs the Portal and online operations for one of the largest ISPs in the UK. He also writes for Windows 7 News.

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