Digital Prank

I was shocked to read a post with title Stopping development on Google Notebook in the official Google Notebook blog. Then I checked out other official Google blogs and found that Google gives farewell to Google Mashup Editor, stopping uploads for Google videos anymore, closes down Google catalog search and stops the development of micro-blogging service Jaiku too and got really shocked and puzzled. Google promised that it will not remove the already uploaded videos from Google Video and same with the case for uploaded Google notebook documents. Already I heard some speculations for closing down of certain services sometime back but this one is real shocker getting the news from all at the same time.

Existing users can continue enjoying the services and only new registrations will be blocked and no further updates will be made for any of the above mentioned Google services. Please see the below given excerpt about Jaiku, the micro-blogging service

“As we mentioned last April, we are in the process of porting Jaiku over to Google App Engine. After the migration is complete, we will release the new open source Jaiku Engine project on Google Code under the Apache License. While Google will no longer actively develop the Jaiku codebase, the service itself will live on thanks to a dedicated and passionate volunteer team of Googlers.

With the open source Jaiku Engine project, organizations, groups and individuals will be able to roll-their-own microblogging services and deploy them on Google App Engine. The new Jaiku Engine will include support for OAuth, and we’re excited about developers using this proven code as a starting point in creating a freely available and federated, open source microblogging platform.“

This puts the left over services in the line of danger among the Internet users as Google is getting into cost cutting mode starting with employee layoff, cutting off services, closing down engineering operations etc. May is it the time to move away from Google products and start using services from others ? Its too early to tell as the major services are still in operation and has not no rumors spreading around.  Lets wait and see.