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Google is officially ending a couple of their programs. Some of them today, others a bit further down the roadmap. Today for instance is the last time you can go into Google Labs! They announced that it would be closing down a while ago, and today… is that day.

According to the official word from on high. The list of projects going down is as follows.

• Code Search, which was designed to help people search for open source code all over the web, will be shut down along with the Code Search API on January 15, 2012.
• In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won’t be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it usingGoogle Takeout.
• Jaiku, a product we acquired in 2007 that let users send updates to friends, will shut down on January 15, 2012. We’ll be working to enable users to export their data from Jaiku.
• Several years ago, we gave people the ability to interact socially on iGoogle. With our new focus on Google+, we will remove iGoogle’s social features on January 15, 2012. iGoogle itself, and non-social iGoogle applications, will stay as they are.
• The University Research Program for Google Search, which provides API access to our search results for a small number of approved academic researchers, will close on January 15, 2012.

Official Google Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we go with a quick rundown of each of the social networks I’m currently a part of and what is wrong and right with each one. Why bother beating about the bush here, we have needs they need to be fulfilled. There are problems and they need to be dealt with, shape up or close down.

Believe it or not most SocNet’s are simply extensions of USENET, don’t believe me stay tuned to find out. Don’t know what USENET is? I just died a little when you said yes… You should probably consult the oracle and reflect on your crime, By the By… You owe the oracle one cup of strong black coffee, and a bagel.

Just view them in this light. I’ve also begun to refer to each post i see about a new social network as YASN posts. Yet Another Social Network… you know its getting pretty thick in here, we need to start culling the herd. Weed out the sick and infirm and run with the strongest of the pack.

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