Google closes a number of web services to focus on core

In a recent blog post, Renewing old resolutions for the new year, Google announced the closing of a number of publicly available services and tools. The search giant has been on a killing rampage with the goal of removing under-performing and peripheral businesses from it's portfolio.

Examples of the recently killed Google programs include:

• Buzz social network
• Google Labs
• Google Health

We are pretty saddened at one of the now-doomed services, Picnik, an online photo editing toolset. Picnik is possibly the best-known of the services that  Google is killing. The craziest part is that Google purchased the company less than a year ago--in March 2010. Most likely, Google will be incorporating photo editing tools into it's core products, and perhaps even recycling the Picnik technology.

Other tools that will be phased out, rolled-up or merged:

• Google Message Continuity (GMC)
• Google Sky Map
• Needlebase
• Social Graph API
• Urchin: This online web analytics product became the foundation for Google Analytics