By Susan Duclos
Google has announced on their official blog, a list of services they are retiring throughout 2013.
MARCH
• Beginning today we’ll no longer sell or provide updates for Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows. Existing customers will continue to be able to download the software and can contact us for support. We’ll continue to offer the Snapseed mobile app on iOS and Android for free.
• Beginning next week, we're ending support for the Google Voice App for Blackberry. For Blackberry users who want to continue using Google Voice, we recommend they use our HTML5 app,
which is more secure and easier for us to keep up to date. Our HTML5
site is compatible with users with Blackberry version 6 and newer.
APRIL
• Google Cloud Connect is a plug-in to help people work in the
cloud by automatically saving Microsoft Office files from Windows PCs in
Google Drive. But installing Google Drive on your desktop
achieves the same thing more effectively—and Drive works not only on
Windows, but also on Mac, Android and iOS devices. Existing users will
no longer be able to use Cloud Connect as of April 30.
JUNE
• Google Building Maker helped people to make three-dimensional
building models for Google Earth and Maps. It will be retired on June 1,
but users are still able to access and export their models from the 3D
Warehouse. We’ll continue to expand the availability of comprehensive
and accurate new 3D imagery on Google Earth, and people can still use Google Map Maker to add building information such as outlines and heights to Google Maps.
JULY
• We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy
for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While
the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined.
So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers
interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their
subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
(NewStateman and LifeHacker have lists of suggestions as replacements to the Google Reader)
SEPTEMBER
• Apps Script will be deprecating the GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets in order to focus efforts on Html Service.
The rest of the Ui Service will not be affected. The GUI Builder will
continue to be available until September 16, 2013. For more information
see our post on the Google Apps Developer Blog.
• CalDAV API will
become available for whitelisted developers, and will be shut down for
other developers on September 16, 2013. Most developers’ use cases are
handled well by Google Calendar API, which we recommend using instead. If you’re a developer and the Calendar API won’t work for you, please fill out this form to tell us about your use case and request access to whitelisted-only CalDAV API.
• We’re deprecating our Search API for Shopping, which has enabled
developers to create shopping apps based on Google’s Product Search
data. While we believe in the value this offering provided, we’re
shifting our focus to concentrate on creating a better shopping experience for users through Google Shopping. We’ll shut the API down completely on September 16, 2013.
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