10 Google products tapped by icy finger of the Grim Reaper By Jon Brodkin | Published about

Google will spend the next few months killing off ten products that just weren’t successful or can be put to better use through integration with existing Google services such as search and Chrome.

As CEO Larry Page noted in a recent earnings call, Google has “a few small speculative projects happening at any given time,” but spends the vast majority of its money and staff on its core technologies. To avoid clutter and the appearance of wastefulness to shareholders, Google has to trim the list now and then.

“Over the next few months we’ll be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features,” Google Senior Vice President Alan Eustace wrote in a blog post last week. The products to be shut down are Aardvark, Google Desktop, Fast Flip, Google Maps API for Flash, Google Pack, Google Web Security, Image Labeler, Notebook, Sidewiki, and Subscribed Links.

While some of the products will disappear completely, others will live on in one form or another. Google Web Security was part of the Postini acquisition in 2007, and is pitched to enterprise IT customers as having the ability to block malware and integrate with directory services for “granular enforcement and reporting.” While it will no longer exist as a standalone product, the technology that powers Google Web Security will continue blocking malware in the Chrome browser, which didn’t exist when Google purchased Postini.

The e-mail security portion of Postini seems poised to live on as a separate brand, and Postini services are also integrated into the Google Apps suite of office applications. Aardvark, meanwhile, was a startup acquired by Google in 2010 to boost “social search,” in which questions are answered by fellow Google users rather than Google algorithms. The concept is similar to Quora, but seems to have failed at Google. Instead of promising to integrate Aardvark into other products, Eustace merely writes that “we’ll continue to work on tools that enable people to connect and discover richer knowledge about the world.”

The Google Desktop product has been around since the ancient times of 2004, and gave users a desktop widget that displayed news and could search for files on their computers. With the new emphasis on cloud-based computing, Google says this product is no longer necessary, and all support will be discontinued on Sept. 14.

The Google Maps API for Flash move could be disruptive for some developers. The tool “was launched to provide ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications,” Google notes, referring to the Adobe ActionScript programming language. Existing customers of the Maps API Premier service will continue to receive support, but Google will shift development effort to the JavaScript Maps API.

Regarding the other Google products on the chopping block, Fast Flip is a news-reading tool designed to make online articles look more like print ones; Google Pack is a downloadable set of software tools from Google and third parties; Image Labeler is a tool for exploring and labeling images on the Web; Notebook was a notes service similar to Evernote; Sidewiki is a browser extension that let users add content to any webpage; and Subscribed Links is targeted at developers who wanted to create specialized search results.

For Notebook, Sidewiki and Subscribed Links, users will be given some time to download their content. In the case of Notebook, all data will also be automatically exported to Google Docs.

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Google buys Zave Network

Internet titan Google, which is on an acquisition spree, has bought digital coupons and incentives platform Zave Networks for an undisclosed amount. Zave Networks is Google's 19th buyout this year so far.

According to an estimate, Google has acquired over 100 firms in the last decade, starting with Deja, a company in the Usenet space that was later integrated with Google Groups.This roughly translates into the purchase of 10 companies every year, on average, by Google.

Last month, the search engine giant said it would buy Motorola Mobility, the mobile phones division of Motorola Inc., for $12.5 billion in cash.

Zave Networks, a company founded in 2006, has announced on its homepage that it has been acquired by Google.

"We are delighted to share that Zave Networks has been acquired by Google. When we had the opportunity to join Google, we felt it was the perfect fit for our company and the perfect opportunity to rapidly drive the deployment and use of our platform to the next level," Zave Networks said.

"We're humbled by the unending support our investors, retailers, advertisers and consumers have provided over the past five years and would like to thank each and every one of them. Going forward, we are excited about being part of Google's efforts in this space," it added.

The company did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

By- NDTV

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Steve Jobs and the Google Logo Ambulance

Summary: In a Google+ post, Google’s Vic Gundotra shares the story of the time outgoing Apple CEO Steve Jobs called him on a Sunday morning.

Google Senior VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra took to his Google+ profile to reflect on his time working with Steve Jobs on the occasion of his departure from Apple. And the story Gundotra chose to share, about the day he got a phone call from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning, is destined to become one of those all-time classic tech anecdotes.

As the story goes, Gundotra was responsible for all of Google’s mobile applications at the time, which meant regular contact with Steve Jobs. But he had never called on a Sunday morning before, and Gundotra was in religious services. He called Jobs back as soon as he could:

“Hey Steve - this is Vic”, I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn’t pick up”.

Steve laughed. He said, “Vic, unless the Caller ID said ‘GOD’, you should never pick up during services”.

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

“So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve.

“I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

The next day, Gundotra received an e-mail with the subject header “Icon Ambulance,” directing him to work with Apple’s Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Gundotra now heads up all of Google’s developer and mobile initiatives, and is currently best known as the mastermind behind the Google+ social network. But he says he never forgot that call.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I’ve ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

This story’s been making the rounds - Gundotra has garnered +15572 on that Google+ post at the time of writing (with 8000 shares), and it’s earned a front-page appearance on Reddit with almost 1400 upvotes. Apparently, Gundotra isn’t the only one who appreciates Jobs’ eye for detail.

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