A blog post on inside google desktop blog which was the last one I guess quoted the below:
"As of September 14, Google Desktop will no longer be available for download, and existing installations will not be updated to include new features or fixes. Thanks again to all of our users. It’s been a fun journey."
The question is why?
Some people might argue that the vast move towards mobiles and smart devices and the wide usage of Android operating system among many of the devices reduced the necessity of desktop search.
Other people might say that Google was not making money out of Google Desktop that's why a decision was made to stop supporting the application!
a vast number of people used Google Desktop to easily locate their files. Microsoft search engine embedded in windows failed to satisfy users. Microsoft search is slow inaccurate does not index emails etc. Recently Microsoft learnt from Google and started enhancing the search engine, still Google search is much better.
Other Google free API's were also banned from free usage such as Google Translation API. Now it is a paid service only. Google justified the decision by saying that the application was misused, I was one of the people who was badly effected by both decisions.
I believe many users also were hurt by this decision, despite the fact that Google was offering this service for free and that Google is not a charity, but how can we support the open source communities while we are banned using important applications that open source supporters were benefiting from?
Google decision to develop Desktop application and other API's such as Google Translation were built based on business plans, those plans did not meet expectations.
Google Wave is another product that retired early, the vision was not very clear the product was criticized since the beta launch. Google WIKI also retired.
The year 2011 witnessed the close down of many Google applications. World economics crises and demand on mobile applications, and the fail of those applications and services to increase Google profit are all reasons for Google to retire those applications and services.
Still the year 2011 witnessed also a new important Google product Google+, also this product was criticized as a copy of Facebook. Google also is focusing on mobile operating system development and now after partnering with Motorola, Google is getting more into mobile manufacturing. Steve Job's success in getting Apple as No. 1 IT company in the word inspired Google to focus on mobile development.
Google decision might came to reduce the running cost during the current economical crises. We hope this will not effect other service.
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