10 Google products that were a failure

Google is arguably the second biggest tech company in the world after Apple but as with many great entities, they have had their share of failed products. Yes you read right! From the list below which was originally compiled by EFYtimes Network, you’ll see he Google products that attemted to make it through the market but failed. Some you might remember and others you may not remember.

1. Google Answers

   Google started this project back in 2002. Users could post questions that they want others to answer. The service was paid, you had to pay somewhere between $2 to $200 to get the answer, The most popular question asked by users was, ‘What is the meaning of life?’ The service was shut down in 2006.

   2. Google Catalog Search

   Google Catalog search had listing of thousands of online catalogs. You could use these catalogs to shop online. The service was closed down in 2009. It was basically a digital form of thousands of paper catalogues. Google shut it down as it failed to gain popularity.

   3. Google Web Accelerator

   Google Web Accelerator was designed to reduce the site access time. Users could remotely load the site on client’s computer. However, it prevented YouTube videos from playing. Google stopped the support for Google Web Accelerator in 2008. The app is still available to download.

   4. Google Video

   Google Video was Google’s YouTube rival service. Google video was subsidiary search engine for videos. When Google acquired YouTube, Google Video was replaced by YouTube.

   5. iGoogle

   iGoogle was customized version of homepage, the service allowed users to select quotes, images and other widgets for display. iGoogle was disappointment for fans. The service was discontinued in 2013 when it was replaced by Google+.

   6. Google Reader

   Google Reader was the most popular RSS reader software out there. Reader was most preferred service by media people, content writers and data researchers. However the service was shut down in 2013 due to declined usage.

   7. Dodgeball

   Dodgeball is similar service to Foursquare. Google acquired the company in 2005. The location-based social networking mobile app service was closed down when Google introduced Google Latitude.

   8. Google Notebook

   Google Notebook is browser based application that allows users to cut and paste bits of text in personal notebook. It was very useful tool in research context. Google ceased the development of Notebook in 2009 and finally discontinued the product in 2011. The project was replaced by Google Keep in 2013.

   9. Google Page Creator

   Google Page create was basic webpage creation tool which was introduced in 2006. The web tool was replaced by Google Sites in 2008.

   10. Jaiku

   Google acquired Jaiku, microblogging site in 2007. It was named as Jaiku because the brief posts resembled haikus. This product by Google failed as it didn’t make any significant impact and hence, it was closed down in 2012.