Google's Killing Spree

In the past 10 years google killed 201 products, these include services, hardware, and standalone apps.

Minor services like Pixel Pass was killed in 2023 which was a subscription designed to let customers pay for a new Pixel Phone in monthly installments while also enjoying the benefits of the premium version of apps like YouTube and Photos.

Then there were major services like Google Domains and Optimize that a lot of people used.

I remember back in 2016 when chats apps were going through an existential crisis, every company wanted to make their own messaging app. Google had Allo, if you don’t remember it that’s fine, It only lived for about 3 years. It was supposed to be a messenger and WhatsApp competitor, because on top of your google account it also used your phone number as an identifier, but it never really took off.

It was available on Android and IOS and Web. But obviously in a market where WhatsApp exists you can’t just swoop in with a new chat app with a terrible name and expect people to use it, But google did try, it had almost all the features of a normal messaging app like video calling and file sharing but on top of that a virtual assistant, that you could use while messaging with the other person, I don’t see why anyone would need that but it was fun to use.

I only knew one other kid in my school that used Allo, because everyone else was just using WhatsApp.

Speaking of WhatsApp it also kind of went through its own crisis over the years, like when it introduced stories after seeing how successful they were on Instagram, but at the end of the day it worked out, unlike stories on YouTube.

Google tried doing the same with YouTube back in 2018, I know 2018, not the best year for YouTube in general, but nobody gave a crap about stories, I don't know why it took them so long to kill it.

They also had YouTube Messages, which honestly just feels like a fever dream, like you could make groups on YouTube and share videos on there and chat.

It made sharing YouTube videos easier for a while but again not many people used it and they wanted to focus more on shorts and other features.

Something I’m pretty sure they won’t kill is YouTube music, because what it really needs is a refresh, most people listen to music using their phone and the UI is abysmal, at least for me, it makes no sense. The emphasis on music videos is understandable but the implementation feels wrong. Maybe some people like it but I don't; it's bad.

Now that they have moved Google Podcasts to YouTube Music, a redesign to the UI would be great. Maybe having podcasts and music as their own tabs and not just a section on the top that mimics the main YouTube app.

Google Podcasts was one of the most straightforward and simple apps, at least for a podcast app it worked pretty well. It shouldn’t be hard to implement something like that in the podcast section of the music app. I don’t even use YouTube music, idk why I'm complaining so much. Sorry. Moving on.

But before YouTube music there was Google Play Music which was killed back in 2020, this is the music streaming app I used when 4G was starting to become more affordable, because the convenience of not having to download mp3 files anymore was such a relief for me. I don’t think it was expensive either, and the way I paid for it was by doing surveys on google opinion rewards which paid in credits that could be spent on the google play store or in app purchases.

So basically it was free for me. Opinion rewards BTW came out in 2013 and is still going strong.

But the saddest of them all has to be Google+, which at the time was the only social media app that I could sign up on, because unlike Facebook, you could just make your account using your Gmail. But then I used my mom’s phone number to make a Facebook account because nobody used Google+

There were several reasons for which it died, but one of the major ones was its bugs, bugs that exposed the personal data of nearly half a million users; shortly after which another bug exposed the data of more than 50 Million users.

Throughout its lifetime; Google added many features to it, but it faced a public backlash for trying to merge with YouTube. By the end; features like hangouts and photos were turned into their own separate apps, leaving just the carcass of the social media app, the fundamentals of which were never good to begin with.

But at least it was well recognized, because Google tried their hands on the social media market for quite a while, with apps like Google Buzz and Google Friends Connect but nothing got as much popularity as G+, now that may be for various different reasons like the data leaks or the sheer lack of a user base, but google kept funding it for over 10 years. Regardless, it was a turning point for google and how it handled data security from that point onwards.

Years later, messaging and video calling apps like Hangouts and Duo also came to the end of their lifetime as well; since the company focused more on google meet to be the replacement for these apps.

Over the years they have tried making their own version for most of the services available in the market, for example; Google Answers which was a competitor to something like Quora.

Or Google Keen; another social media app that was more focused towards the approach of Pinterest. It only lasted for about 4 years, being killed just a month ago.

Google Stadia was another big letdown, because their idea was to create a cloud gaming service for everyone, the keyword here is “everyone”. At the time of its inception; there was no target audience.

For pc players it was kind of a good deal, since all you had to do was make an account with Stadia and buy a game and start playing, no other hardware purchase required, you could use the controllers you already had or just use your mouse and keyboard.

Console players however; had to purchase the stadia controller and the Chromecast ultra, not many people liked the stadia controller and so it never took off in the console market.

Moreover it had a lot of other issues and due to the lack of marketable hardware it slowly died down, with January 2023 marking the end of its lifetime.

In the last 4 years they shut down some of the more popular apps like YouTube Go, Thread it, My Maps, Play Movies & TV, Jam board and Google Street View - The standalone app.

It’s a pretty big graveyard.

Let me know in the comments below which app you think they are going to kill next.