Cleaning house, Google style
Google continued to kill off businesses today, as it streamlines operations, axing its would-be Wikipedia rival, Knol, and Wave, a real-time collaboration tool.
Earlier this year, Google Chief Executive Larry Page announced plans to shed businesses that didn't offer big opportunities in order for Google to focus on the ones that do. Along the way, the company has
The latest round of cuts, announced in a blog post by Urs Holzle, senior vice president of operations and a Google fellow, includes Google Bookmarks Lists, which let users share bookmarks with friends, and Google Friend Connect, which let Webmasters add social features to their site.
Knol, launched in 2007, will continue to work until April 30. From May 1 to October 1, articles published on the site by the community, known as knols, will no longer be viewable, but can be downloaded and exported. After that, Knol content will no longer be accessible.
Google
The company is also completely killing Google Gears, a Web plug-in that it
The company is also removing the Google Search Timeline's graph of historical results for queries. Web surfers, though, will be able to restrict searches to particular time periods using the tools on the search page.
Google is also shuttering Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal. Google developed the initiative to drive down the cost of renewable energy. But Holzle wrote that "other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level."