From Toolbar to Play Movies, here's 24 things Google killed this year

Alphabet's Google has something of an infamy in the global internet community for killing products and services out of the blue. Last year, it infamously killed Google Play Music, choosing instead to focus on YouTube music, and the year before, it killed Google+.

2021 was not very different for the company, as it killed 24 products and services, the age of which ranged from as little to 3 years old to over 20 years old, according to the Google Graveyard.

1. App Maker

Google App Maker was an application development tool, which allowed developers to build and deploy custom business apps with little use of code. It let users drag and drop widgets into a visual editor with built-in templates, and apps could be customized using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery and Google's own material design visual framework. It was taken offline in January 2021 after Google acquired AppSheet.

2. Loon

Aimed at providing internet access to "the last unconnected communities and those least able to pay" by way of balloons placed in the stratosphere, Google's Loon was shut down in January 2021 as the company said that "the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped". Elon Musk's Starlink appears to have taken over the ambition of providing remote, wireless internet instead.

3. Tilt Brush

Google's resident virtual reality painting app, Tilt Brush was killed by the company in January 2021 despite favourable reception. However, instead of consigning it to the void like most of its services, Tilt Brush was instead made open-source.

4. Swift for TensorFlow

Swift for TensorFlow was an experiment in next-generation platform for machine learning, incorporating the latest research across machine learning, compilers, differentiable programming, systems design, and beyond. It was shut down in February.

5. Google Cardboard

Targeted at encouraging development in VR applications, Google Cardboard was created to be a low-cost VR platform where users would need only a few cheap components specified by Google to experience VR. Despite good early reception, interest in it dwindled quickly, and the platform's SDK (software development kit) was open-sourced in 2019, and the platform was killed in March 2021.

6. Google Crisis Map

Launched eight years ago as one of the first products developed by the Google Crisis Response team, Google Crisis Map was a place where crisis and weather-related data could be visualised on Google Maps. It provided different products and features that helped people find timely, authoritative, and actionable information during a crisis. It was killed in April 2021.

7. Google Go Links

Google's competitor to Bitly was a URL shortening service which supported custom domain for customers of Google Workspace in addition to traditional URL shortening. It was shut down in April 2021 after 11 years of service.

8. Google Public Alerts

One more part of Google's Crisis Response team, Google Public Alerts was launched in 2012 and operated in about a dozen countries. It was an online notification service that sent safety alerts such as weather watches, warnings and advisories to users. It was shut down in March 2021, though the functions themselves were integrated into Google's Search and Maps.

9. Google Shopping

A case of irony, the Google Shopping Mobile App had absorbed Google Express when it launched, providing a native shopping experience with a personalised homepage for mobile users. It was shut in April, though its functionality lives on in the Shopping Tab.

10. Timely

Timely was an Android application which provided users the ability to set alarm clocks, use a stopwatch and a timer with synchronisation across devices. It was killed in June 2021.

11. Zync Reader

Zync Reader was a cloud-based render platform for animation and visual effects. Launched 7 years ago, it was killed in June 2021.

12. Measure

Aptly named for its ability to measure objects, the app allowed people to take measurements of everyday objects through the use of ARCore. It was killed in June 2021.

13. Google Play Movies and TV

Google Play Movies & TV, originally Google TV, was a video on demand app used to view purchased and rented media. Google killed it in June 2021, replacing it with YouTube instead.

14. Poly

A distribution platform for people to create and share 3D models, Poly was shut down in June 2021, and all assets were made unavailable for download.

15. Tour Creator

Google ended support for Tour Creator, which allowed users to create their own tours, in June 2021.

16. Expeditions

An extension of Tour Creator, Expeditions was a program for providing virtual reality experiences to school classrooms through Google Cardboard viewers, allowing educators to take their students on virtual field trips. It was shut down in June 2021.

17. Tour Builder

Tour Builder was a web-based tool that made it easy to add and share photos and videos to a sequence of locations on Earth. It was shut down in July 2021 as the company launched Projects on Google Earth for Web.

18. Fitstar Yoga

Fitstar Yoga was a video-based yoga app that created unique yoga sessions based on user preference and skill level. It was shut down in July 2021.

19. Fitbit Coach

Known once as Fitstar, Fitbit Coach was a video-based bodyweight workout app that used AI to personalize workouts based on user feedback. It was also shut down in July 2021.

20. Google My Maps

My Maps was an Android application that enabled users to create custom maps for personal use or sharing on their mobile device or website. It was shut down in favour of supporting the web application.

20. Google Toolbar

One of the oldest services Google ran, Toolbar was first launched in 2000 for Internet Explorer 5. It was shut down in December 2021.

22. Chatbase

Chatbase was an analytics platform for Google's Dialogflow chatbot & others, started by the Google-funded Area120 incubator. It was retired in September and partially merged into Dialogflow itself.

23. Google Bookmarks

Google Bookmarks was a private web-based bookmarking service not integrated with any other Google services. It was shut down in September 2021.

24. AngularJS

One of the most well-known web framework for single-page applications, AngularJS was maintained by Google and a community of individuals and corporations. The framework is currently on Long Term Support till December 31 and will cease to be updated by Google to fix security, compatibility and jQuery issues after that date.

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