Google is known for its collection of wildly popular products, from Search to Maps to Android. But not everything the company touches turns to gold.
Google Glass was supposed to change the world, but it quickly became a punch line. And remember Google Buzz?
Now, Google has killed off yet another app, Google Play Music. The music service app never gained the popularity of its competitors, Spotify and Apple Music, and Google will shut it down for good this year.
Of course, sometimes the best innovations are the ones that everybody thinks are doomed to fail early on but then eventually take off, so it makes sense that Google has had its fair share of misses over the years. Still, we highlighted some of the major products that have ended up in the Google graveyard.
Here’s a look at 200 of Google’s biggest misses:
- AngularJS: December 2021
To be turned off in over 1 year, AngularJS was a JavaScript open-source front-end web framework based on MVC pattern using a dependency injection technique. It was about 11 years old.
- App Maker: January 2021
Getting KO’d in 5 months, App Maker was a tool that allowed its users to build and deploy custom business apps easily and securely on the web without writing much code. It was about 4 years old.
- Google Play Music: December 2020
Expiring in 4 months, Google Play Music was a music and podcast streaming service, and online music locker. It was about 9 years old.
- Google Cloud Print: December 2020
To be flushed in 4 months, Google Cloud Print allowed users to ‘print from anywhere;’ to print from web, desktop, or mobile to any Google Cloud Print-connected printer. It was over 10 years old.
- Google Hangouts: December 2020
Kicking the bucket in 4 months, Google Hangouts was a communication platform which included messages, video chat, and VOIP features. Execution scheduled “late 2020”. It was almost 8 years old.
- Hire by Google: September 2020
Fading into darkness in 11 days, Google Hire was an applicant tracking system to help small to medium businesses distribute jobs, identify and attract candidates, build strong relationships with candidates, and efficiently manage the interview process. It was about 3 years old.
- Password Checkup extension: August 2020
Kicking the bucket in 10 days, Whenever you signed in to a site, Password Checkup triggered a warning if the username and password you used were one of over 4 billion credentials that Google knew to be unsafe. It was over 1 year old. You can try using the best password manager for Mac; it will protect all your credentials and be your online vault.
- Focals by North: 2019 – 2020
Killed 21 days ago, Focals were a custom-built smart glasses product with a transparent, holographic display that allowed users to read and respond to text messages, navigate turn-by-turn directions, check the weather, and integrate with third-party services like Uber and Amazon Alexa. It was over 1 year old.
- Google Photos Print: 2020 – 2020
Killed about 2 months ago, Google Photos Print was a subscription service that automatically selected the best ten photos from the last thirty days which were mailed to user’s homes. It was 5 months old.
- Shoelace: 2019 – 2020
Killed 3 months ago, App used to find group activities with others who share your interests on Shoelace It was 11 months old.
