After the departure of Eric Schmidt from the post of CEO, the new incumbent Larry Page has almost started a crusade for eliminating
Google's non-essential businesses. The company is now looking to shut down at least 10 Google products, deemed unworthy of being pursued. Among, these businesses is Aardvark, which the company had bought just last year for cool $59 million. Google is now looking to focus its attention on key businesses including its latest venture Google+.
According to Google's official blog, the businesses being closed are Fast Flip, Google Web Security, Notebook and Sidewiki. The company is also closing down Desktop, Subscribed Links, Image Labeler and Google Maps API for Flash. The company's senior vice president for engineering also added, "Over the next few months we’ll be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features.”
Google will move all the resources from now-defunct units to its new 'higher-impact" divisions including Google+. The company's latest social networking endeavor is still in the beta stage and Google yet has to announce its probable public launch date. According to industry experts, Google may take the final plunge during the first half of next year.
CEO Larry Page is rumored to have asked his product managers to pitch their projects in 60 words. The exercise was clearly undertaken with the view of clearing out the weed. While we laud Larry's business acumen, but it looks like he is sucking away all the fun out the company. Some of the closed apps would be sorely missed.