codyogden / killedbygoogle

Part guillotine, part graveyard for Google's doomed apps, services, and hardware.

Killed by Google

A tribute and log of beloved products and services killed by Google.

Contribute

To add a product, gather the following information:

• Name of Product (name)
• Launch Date (dateOpen)
• Discontinued Date (dateClose)
• Description (description)
• Link (link) - Relevant link to the source.
• Type (type) - one of App, Service or Hardware

If you are not familiar with or do not want to use git, submit a new issue requesting the change. If you are already familiar with git, follow these steps:

1. If you haven't already, start by forking this repository.
2. Create a new branch in your fork. Name it using the product you want to add
3. Switch to that branch (should happen automatically if you've just created it) and open the graveyard.json file
4. Run yarn && yarn kill to start the product addition CLI. This will prompt you for the information and validate your entry as you go. It will write the product information into the graveyard.json file for you.
5. After the CLI, run yarn test to ensure that the graveyard.json is formatted properly and all values are valid.
6. Commit your work in git and create a Pull Request (PR) using the newly created branch.

For code contributions outside of graveyard.json, check out the Contributing Guide.

Editorial Guidelines

Description

The description should be a single sentence describing the product. It should begin with the products name. For example, "Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator." It will be attached to a generated sentence like "Killed about 5 years ago, Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator."

Please be respectful, only use past tense.

Link

Link should be a resource that mentions the discontinuation date and talks about the product. Links to Wikipedia or a news organization should be prioritized. Please do not use Google Support articles, linking to the product's URL, the product's marketing URL, or other Google-provided links. Google removes these links quickly after a service is ended.

Type

The type should be either app, service, or hardware as a string.

killedbygoogle's Issues

Google Goggles

Product or Service Name
Google Goggles
Date Opened/Launched

2010-10-05

Date Closed/Discontinued

2018-08-20

Description

Google Goggles was used for searches based on pictures taken by handheld devices.

Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Goggles

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google - Final Issue for Hacktoberfest

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Check killedbygoogle.com to ensure it's not already on the list. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Incorrect English grammar use of `an`: "Reply was an mobile app"

killedbygoogle/graveyard.json

Line 600 in a009b61

"description": "Reply was an mobile app that let users insert Smart Replies (pre-defined replies) into conversations on messaging apps.",

Google Hangouts

Google will be killing Hangouts in 2020.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/12/01/report-google-killing-hangouts-in-2020-probably-will-launch-8-new-messaging-services-in-its-place/

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Google Refine

Google Refine (2010-2012)

Google Refine was part of the Metaweb acquisition, originally known as Freebase Gridworks. It's now an open source project known as OpenRefine.

http://openrefine.org/my%20category/2013/10/12/openrefine-history.html

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Encrypted Search is not dead

I don't think this should really be considered a "killed feature", since all encrypted.google.com was was HTTPS search, which google.com now supports be default.

https://encrypted.google.com still works, too (it just redirects to google.com, because there is no difference now).

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Google Allo

Google Allo

https://9to5google.com/2018/12/05/google-allo-shutting-down/

Absolutely lmao. No official date yet but I guess it's coming.

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Google AdWords

What's the Product's Name?
Google AdWords

Any idea when it was killed by Google?
2018. It has been rebranded and combined with other products to create Google Ads.

Google Chrome Apps

Date Closed/Discontinued

2018

Date Opened/Launched

2013

Description
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_App

Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_App

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Google Skymap

This was a google app initially. Then it was given to university project

Suggestion : killedbyfacebook

Missing: Google Health

Google Health was a personal health information centralization service (sometimes known as personal health record services) by Google introduced in 2008 and discontinued in 2011.[1] The service allowed Google users to volunteer their health records – either manually or by logging into their accounts at partnered health services providers – into the Google Health system, thereby merging potentially separate health records into one centralized Google Health profile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Health

Incorrect English grammar of plural "years" after a single year: "1 years ago"

Seems this is returned from the date-fns formatDistance utility.

Maybe it needs to be specified to use the United States english locale?
I see in date-fns master the en-US locale should display correctly... I haven't compared versions to see if a update would fix this. 🤔

Chrome Frame

What's the Product's Name?
Google Chrome Frame

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_Frame
• https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/chrome-frame-getting-started
• https://blog.chromium.org/2013/06/retiring-chrome-frame.html

Any idea when it was killed by Google?
It was not really needed any more.

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Google Talk

Product or Service Name
Google Talk
Date Opened/Launched
2005-08-24

Date Closed/Discontinued
2013-05-15

Description
Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provides both text and voice communication.

Link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Talk

Google Admob

What's the Product's Name?
AdMob

Any idea when it was killed by Google?
2006 - 2009, 3 years old

iGoogle

Product or Service Name
iGoogle
Date Opened/Launched

2005-05-19

Date Closed/Discontinued

2013-11-01

Description

iGoogle was a customizable Ajax-based start page or personal web portal.

Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGoogle

Youtube Video Editor

Daniel, on Twitter, mentioned YouTube video editor (2010-2017).

https://twitter.com/dno1967b/status/1070022092303806464

We'll need to find some dates and a good sentence for this one.

Writely: renamed+rewritten, not killed?

I believe Writely evolved and wasn't killed off. It turned into Google Docs.

Source: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2017/12/15/high-volume-logging-with-steve-newman/

In 2006, Writely was acquired by Google, and Steve spent his next four years turning Writely into Google Docs. - Steve Newman, co-founder of Writely

App vs. Service vs. Product

Enhancement idea. I think it could be interesting to have other visual means to differentiate between applications, services or products Google has killed. The page could also support filtering by type, and show the total number so users could make an idea. E.g.

all (76) - apps (40) - services (20) - products (16)

Google Wave

Product or Service Name
Google Wave

Date Opened/Launched
2009-09-01

Date Closed/Discontinued
2012-04-30

Description
Google Wave was an online communication and collaborative real-time editor tool.

Link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Remove estimates and relative dates

Remove all mention of "days ago", "months ago" and "in X days", "in X months".

Missed: Google Physical Web

Google pretty much abandoned it's Physical Web project for all intents and purposes.

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!topic/physical-web-discuss/5hkPwciMdH4

Code Tests

I have only minimal experience writing code tests in React. Not sure if it is worth it for a project this small, but it would be interesting to see some basic code tests implemented.

Open to suggestions, but I'm not setting expectations or assumptions. I may try to do this myself.

Combine Nexus Phone Devices

Listing services and great ideas killed by Google is a nice idea.
But listing actual hardware (even the ones that got continued!!!) makes the site unnecessarily overcrowded.

Listing the Nexus series? Why not? It's a sad story, I miss it too.
Listing Pixel? For what reason? It still has successors, and is a very successful line of phones.

I think you should consider listing hardware based on their product line, the general idea that they stood for. Going along with the above example: Nexus is dead, Pixel is not.

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Check killedbygoogle.com to ensure it's not already on the list. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google - Final Issue for Hacktoberfest

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Check killedbygoogle.com to ensure it's not already on the list. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

DoubleClick

What's the Product's Name?
DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP)
DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA)

Any idea when it was killed by Google?
2018. Related to issue #204, Google AdWords.

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Google Cloud Messaging

Google Cloud Messaging

April 11, 2019

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

Bump

What's the Product's Name?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)

Any idea when it was killed by Google?

Sure. The company was acquired in October 2013 and the product discontinued on January 2014

Encrypted Search

Product or Service Name

Date Opened/Launched

2010-05-31

Date Closed/Discontinued

2018-04-30

Description

Encryped Search provided users with anonymous internet searching.

Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search#Dedicated_encrypted_search_page

Google Notebook

Product or Service Name
Google Notebook
Date Opened/Launched
2008-08-10
Date Closed/Discontinued
2011-11-11

Description

Google Notebook allowed users to save and organize clips of information while conducting research online.

Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Notebook

copy+pasta issue

#8

Has a copy+pasta issue with the URL.

Google Hangouts

Google will be shutting down Hangouts in 2020. Date pending.

https://9to5google.com/2018/11/30/google-hangouts-shutting-down/

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Add a Product or Service Killed by Google

Know of a Product or Service Google has Killed?

It can be anything from an acquisition they squashed (e.g. Meebo), or a Google-only service (e.g. Google+). Contributing is easy. Open a pull request and add a new product snippet to graveyard.json.

  {
    "dateClose": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "dateOpen": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "description": "[Product Name] was a single sentence overview of the product or service.",
    "link": "https://any.link-to-a.source/will/work-and-wikipedia-is-cool",
    "name": "[Product Name]"
  }

You can find many dead, discontinued, or dying products in this list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products