
Ever since Larry Page took over as Google’s CEO, the company has shut down more and more of its products that were only being used by a limited number of users. Today, the company announced another round of “spring cleaning.” In the process, Google is shutting down a number of APIs, as well as the homepage for its patent search tool, Google Flu Vaccine Finer, Google Related, Google Sync for BlackBerry, the mobile web app for Google Talk and One Pass, its payment platform for online news publishers. Also gone are Picasa for Linux, as well as the Picasa album uploader for Mac and the Picasa iPhoto plugin.
Most of these services were only used by a few users or, like the Flu Vaccine Finder, had outlived their usefulness. Tools like Google Related, for example, were interesting experiments (like many of the other products the company shut down previously), but never caught on with users. Other tools, like Patent Search, are being integrated into the main Google experience.
The most interesting and promising product that Google is shutting down completely now, though, is probably One Pass. With One Pass, Google once hoped to help publishers monetize their content. It never saw a lot of adoption in the publishing world, however. Instead of One Pass, Google is now recommending that publishers use its Consumer Surveys tool to monetize their content.
Here is a full list of services that are getting the ax today: