App to Check If Google Killed Your App

by Rian

‘It never gets easier’ as the saying goes. Google, or Alphabet, acquires many unicorn companies only to abandon less successful, if not, less prospective businesses. Makes one wonder who approves these purchases in the first place. But regardless of the firm’s fiscal decision, it is undeniably true that these services, at one point, had some following.

In honor of these fallen soldiers, Killed by Google keeps records of those who fell in the hands of its employers. Let’s be frank. Google kills too many services to the point where I realized some of the missing features from YouTube weren’t sent off to oblivion, but rather killed off. Take YouTube Originals, Google’s attempt to make YouTube exclusive contents.

Then there’s Google Talk and Google Hangouts —two messenger apps I had used in the early smartphone days. If anybody asks why Apple has an ecosystem as a strategy, it is not by choice; Google killed its own, that’s why Apple seems to have one in contrast. Google+ walked the similar path. It was first replaced by something similar, with something that will pinpoint the focus group, only to die from lackluster market response.

And then there are apps like Bump that are pulled from the market, possibly in favor of NFC at the time, only to be Sherlocked by AirDrop. Some products like Nest that still refuses support HomeKit. Frankly, some of the services Google has killed only lost its competitive edge due to Google’s positioning in the market.

I can’t speak for how much cash Alphabet has, or why the company is seemingly taking on riskier solutions than others. But this website does serve as a reminder to everyone. If your favorite service is now owned by one of the goliaths in Silicon Valley, you might want to consider the fact that service might not exist for “strategic” reasons.