Google shuts down iGoogle, which joins long line of shuttered services

Google kicked off November by killing off one of its little-used features.

The Mountain View, Calif., company got rid of iGoogle, a tool that let users set up personalized home page on their Web browser. The service was essentially Google’s version of the MSNBC, AOL or Yahoo home page.

The decision isn’t too surprising considering that these days, few set up a home page for their Web browser. Nowadays, most users set the Web browser to either bring up the last page viewed or their Facebook News Feed, for instance. And on smartphones and tablets, setting up home pages simply never caught on.

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Google has a long history of starting and shutting services and features. Here are a few notable Google services that have been killed off recently.

Google Reader

Earlier this year Google decided to end Google Reader, a service that allowed users to collect story feeds for all their favorite websites into one location. The decision angered thousands of users, who quickly petitioned the company but had to turn to alternatives.

Google Talk

The company’s chatting service was shuttered this year, but it was replaced by Google Hangouts. The decision came as Google tried to consolidate many of its communication services into one.

Google Latitude

Google also decided to shut down Google Latitude this year. Latitude was a service that lets users easily share their location with friends. But with the existence of Google+ as well as Foursquare and others, Google decided that Latitude no longer served a purpose.

Google Wave

When Google first announced Wave, the service was met with excitement. Wave let users communicate with each other in real time and share items like YouTube videos with ease, but no one ever quite figured out what to do with Wave. That’s why users quickly stopped using the service, and that’s why Google ended it.

Google Videos

Before YouTube, there was Google Videos. But once Google purchased YouTube, there was really no reason to keep hosting a separate social video website. YouTube’s popularity made Google Videos obsolete.

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