The Winnowing --Google kills the iGoogle for iPhone

You can file this post under the “bad timing” category. Last week I blogged on the iGoogle coming to the iPhone and how farsighted Google was for making their software work well on other company’s platform. Just as the post went live, I received word from a reader that the iGoogle for iPhone is now dead and that the user no longer gets an optimized version. Evidently, Google pulled the plug on Jaiku and Google Notebook as well.

It may be that the current economic climate is causing the moves. The local Google Austin office was recently shuttered for that very reason. Also, an Austin-made product called Dodgeball which was the hit of SxSW several years ago and then acquired by Google has been killed off. Other applications that just got dumped include Google 3D, Mashup editor, and Google catalog.

Last fall Google killed off Lively and Print Ads. Given the large number of beta projects Google floated I guess it should be unsurprising that many are meeting a timely death before full product launch. Such is the way of prototypes and pilots.

Best regards,
Hall T.