What Google Service Would You Cut?
Valleywag ran a poll asking its readers what service Google should pull the plug on next, after last week’s mercy killing of Google Answers. The top vote-getter: Joga Bonito, the rebranded Orkut for soccer fans. The statistics back up the votes; while Orkut has quadrupled in popularity since June, becoming the ninth most popular site on Alexa, Joga has virtually no measurable audience:
In second place: Google Base, which just isn’t going away anytime soon. Base may be the most vaguely defined product in Google’s arsenal, but unlike Answers or Joga, Base isn’t looking to get popular; it just needs to gain the vital information necessary to power lots of search verticals. Eventually, Base will replace Froogle (a necessary cut), as well as adding tons of OneBox links that allow searchers to check out specialized resources within Base.
In third: Dodgeball, which Google bought 19 months ago and never used for anything. Is there any reason that the Dodgeball website is even still running? How many users do they still have? Valleywag muses on it, reasoning:
The unit, acquired by Google last year, is unlikely to be shut down entirely; it may live on as a feature within Google’s broader mobile services.
Really? What, has Google been planning a stealth launch for over 500 days? Google’s mobile strategy falls further behind its rivals every day. You think they’d have released something by now.
