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Google announced a new batch of services due for the chopping block in a ‘spring cleaning’ update including the firm’s renewable energy initiative.
With Google co-founder CEO Larry Page taking back the reigns, the internet giant has moved to focus on fewer but higher quality offerings. In announcing the latest cuts, Google veep Urs Hölzle said: "our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience."
A timeline for the closure of the ill-fated Google Wave collaborative networking took was announced, with the service going read only in January and shutting down for good in April next year.
Google is also axing Google Bookmark Lists and Friends Connect, the latter largely subsumed into Google+. Also being cut is the offline browser extension Gears in favor of a broad move towards HTML5 offline storage.
The firm is also to shut down Knol, the Wikipedia-like content authoring platform and the firm’s Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative.
"At this point, other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level," Hölzle said adding that the firm will "continue our work to generate cleaner, more efficient energy."
