Google downsizes, cuts Jaiku, Google Video, and more

By on Jan 15, 2009 at 9:27 AM
News January 15, 2009

Contrary to popular belief, the mighty force that is the Google empire is not exactly recession proof. The company announced yesterday that it was laying off roughly 100 employees and making some pretty significant “alterations” to its product offerings. None of the major Google services (Gmail, Google Docs, etc) were affected, but a number of minor Google products have been relegated to a virtual death row sentence. Jaiku is being shifted to the Google App Engine, which essentially means that the company will cease any and all official support, though Jaiku accounts will continue to function for the foreseeable future. Google Notebooks, Google Catalogs, Dodgeball, Google Video, and Google Mashup Editor, however, will all meet a similar fate, though Google Notebooks will simply be closed to any new user signups and Google video will still allows users to view existing content, though new content uploads will be disabled very shortly. All told, while it’s not a huge blow to the company’s bread-and-butter, it’s yet another example of just how bad the economic situation has become, and leads us to question whether a seemingly impenetrable company like Google will be able to keep up with future innovation and new service offerings.

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  • http://www.k5live.com Likeabite

    I’d like to say I’m surprised but I’m really not. Every company’s meeting a similar fate. What I am surprised about is how Google is eliminating some of their offerings but yet releasing new ones like their new blog transferring tool (forgot the name)…interesting.

  • Unal

    But google notebooks is related to google toolbar with Bookmarks… does it mean that we lose all our bookmarks?

  • Elia Freedman

    Hi good folks at BGR. Google Video is linked to Blogger — any videos uploaded through Blogger are uploaded to Google Video. Is there any word on what will happen to all the videos uploaded through Blogger?

  • http://bgr tblack

    yahoo should take over now

  • backbeat

    Corps as bloated as Google have no choice but to trim some fat. It’s inevitable. Given that today’s unemployment is at double-digits when the under-employed and those who have run out the unemployment insurance are included in the DOLs figures, This nation is essentially in a genuine depression.

    The DOLs methods are accounting for true unemployment changed only a few years ago in order to disguise the facts of our economy, in order to falsely continue consumer confidence. I’m hopeful that integrity where these matters are concerned are restored on 1/20. We deserve much better than government-supported mirages.

  • jp

    haven’t even heard of most of those services anyways

  • Dtest54

    haven’t used or heard of alot of those.

    Google Video should have went away after they bought youtube.
    Its a sign of the times, I like the idea that this could mark the low point of the recession.

  • RS

    @Elia Freedman – I would imagine videos uploaded to Blogger would start to be routed to Picasa at some point.

  • Who?

    I wonder if Google is regretting paying so much for YouTube. Hahahahahaha.

  • xmxpro

    Are they still working on Grandcentral?

  • http://www.thegeniusfiles.com thegeniusfiles

    These sound like good choices to me. Google should have done this awhile ago, but the ‘googleuphoria’ gave them some room to coast. What Google needs to do is integrate its product line so that the notions of Docs, Gmail, etc just go away and become different views of the core brand which is Google. Google has become a verb in contemporary speech. That’s enormously powerful and Google should stop diluting it with confusing side projects. That is what got Yahoo in trouble, and AOL before them.

  • Cindy Sheehan

    Wow,hey backbeat, “No Blood For Oil!” Oh, this is a tech site and not a political blog? Whoops!

  • jimmykicks

    I will be sad to see Google Video go. From my understanding, it had much different content than YouTube (Full-length documentaries, for instance)

  • backbeat

    @Cindy: Tech [nor the real world] doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Just ask the tech sector analysts. ;)

    Rockin’ In The Free World :)

  • http://Krubuntu.com Krubuntu

    Alas, it was inevitable but at least Notebook is a tool I use hourly (as do many of my peers) & Google Video did have some advantages over YouTube. Maybe they should actually start charging for some of the more useful services that everyday people use like Goog-411. I use 1.800.GOOG.411 three times a week minimum and it’s more acurate than the “real” 411. They give you the option to have your listing sent via sms to your mobile (just like 411) for free but perhaps they could charge a nickle for it. Or even charge for the call itself; last I called 411, $1.59 showed up on my bill so Google could charge, say, $0.29 per call & like regular 411, offer more info per call like weather forcasts, stocks, news headlines, lotto results, etc. If they give you inaccurate info, your next call would be free. If a million people used this today, that would be approx. $290.00 a day & they would still be great competition for 411 and I for one would continue to use it as I feel it’s totally worth $0.29 & it’s easy & accurate. Just my $1.59 worth. :)

  • http://wordpress.pocosin.com Counsel

    Sad to see such sites/software as Jaiku and GrandCentral go to the tank.

    I’d love to know / hear how the developers of those apps/software feel about their time at Google and whether their new jobs (if they still have them) is better / more rewarding than the job they had when they were with their original development (software/site/etc…).

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