Google Shuts Down Mobile Web App For Google Talk, Others

Search giant Google has been shutting down products or merging them into existing products (as features) for a long time now (it's not like they are not adding stuff, but we are focusing on what's being changed/removed). Google Pack, Fast Flip and Aardvark, etc were some of the products that were closed down last time around. Then the company went ahead and shut down Google Buzz, a micro-blogging service that was tipped to take on Twitter. This time, the mobile web app for Google Talk, among others have come under the axe while the company looks to do a little spring cleaning.

Here's a look at the changes

Mobile Web app for Google Talk- Google is shutting down the mobile Web app for Google Talk. Users who want to continue using Google Talk will have to do it using the native Google Talk app on Android or any extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP) compliant apps on other mobile platforms.

One Pass- The company's payment platform for online news publishers has been shut down. Google is now working with its existing partners to make the transition from One Pass to other platforms, including Google Consumer Surveys.

Support for Google sync for BlackBerry will end starting next month. While users that already have the app installed will still be able to use it; new downloads will not be possible after June 1, 2012.

Picasa for Linux- The company has also stopped supporting Picasa for Linux. Users with older versions of Picasa for Linux can continue to use them but the company won't be making any further updates. Additionally, the Picasa Web albums uploader for Mac and Picasa Web albums plug-in for iPhoto will no longer be available for download.

Google Flu Vaccine Finder- It was a maps mash-up built during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic that showed nearby vaccination places across the US. It has shut down now.

Google Related- An experimental browsing assistant launched to help people find interesting and useful information while they browse the web. The product will be shut down over the next few weeks.

The company has also made a lot of application programming interface (API) changes; like adopting a one-year deprecation policy for certain APIs and removing the policy altogether for others, details here.

"Spring has arrived and we're ready to close or combine another round of products. We have so many opportunities in front of us that without hard choices we risk doing too much and not having the impact we strive for," wrote Matthias Schwab, director, Cloud services at Google in a blog post.