Categories: Web

Google to retire Google Health and Google PowerMeter

Google have announced today that they will discontinue two underperforming products; Google Health and Google PowerMeter. Google Health will retire on January 1st, 2012, while Google PowerMeter will retire this September 16th.

Google Health

Launched in May 2008, Google Health is a service that allows users to store, manage and share their health information from one central place. Google PowerMeter was first launched in February 2009 and allows users to monitor their home’s energy consumption from anywhere online. Data from Google PowerMeter will be available for export until the service shuts down in September, while Google Health data will be made available for export until January 2013.

Aaron Brown, senior product manager at Google Health commented on the closure of the service,

“Now, with a few years of experience, we’ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would. There has been adoption among certain groups of users…but we haven’t found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people.”

Ultimately, Google attribute the discontinuation of both services on their “inability to scale” which has led the company to focus priorities elsewhere. Google’s decisiveness in killing off products and services early that do not perform to expectation is undoubtedly part of their success. Both services now join Google Video and Google Wave, among others, in the ever-growing Google graveyard.

Albizu Garcia

Albizu Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gain -- a marketing technology company that automates the social media and content publishing workflow for agencies and social media managers, their clients and anyone working in teams.

View Comments

Recent Posts

AI safety for kids a top concern for COPPA compliant AI startups

June means the start of summer is upon us, and as teachers put the 2024-2025…

2 days ago

DARPA to simulate disease outbreaks: model lockdown, vaccination & messaging strategies

Why is DARPA modeling disease outbreaks & intervention strategies while simultaneously looking to predict &…

4 days ago

ManagedMethods launches Advanced Phishing solution against rising tide of malicious emails 

Earlier this year, a report from non-profit organization the Center for Internet Security shone a…

4 days ago

DARPA ‘CoasterChase’ looks to mitigate stress with ingestible neurotech

DARPA is putting together a research program called CoasterChase that aims to mitigate warfighters' stress…

5 days ago

U.S. Fusion Power Plant Design Passes Independent Review

In the global race to develop and commercialize fusion power reactors, U.S. scientists have reached…

5 days ago

Pet Health Meets Convenience: New Partnership Aims to Empower Pet Owners with At-Home Testing

Innovative Pet Lab, a science-forward company offering at-home health tests for pets, today announced a…

1 week ago