Google Plus and Minus: Google Shuts Down Services While Adding New Ones

Less is more. At least that’s what Google (News - Alert) is looking to do, as the company will soon be discontinuing some services that are underperforming, to focus on those that seem more popular with users. 

Those services include Google Apps for Teams, Google Listens, Google Video for Business and over 150 regularly maintained blogs.

House cleaning began when Google cofounder, Larry Page, took over as company CEO last year. At the same time, Google has also been rolling out new products and services. For example, the company has launched the Google Cloud Platform Partner Program that provider partners with “tools, training and resources they need to successfully address business IT needs.”

Though it did not detail what specific tools, training and resources these would be, these resources would revolve around such cloud offerings as the Google Compute Engine, Google App Engine, Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Storage. 



The acquisition of Wildfire by Google is another significant milestone. The social media marketing company, with 16,000 customers including 30 of the top 50 brands, is worth noting, especially for small business owners. Google offers small businesses the tools they need to master websites. The firm is well aware that a great website is the first step in building a successful online business.

As a result, Google is always upgrading and enhancing its Google Webmaster tool set.

Another notable tool for businesses marketing by leveraging the search engines is the Google Now tool, one of the several prongs in a shift in mobile search strategy by Google. The latest version of Android (News - Alert), Jellybean, incorporates Google Now, which “speeds up search by eliminating the need for it.”

All these changes are seen as evidence of market shifts, especially with the use of location-based services, with more consumers sharing transaction-level information and with businesses and brands building mobile apps.

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Edited by Braden Becker