Google to Fold Social Network Buzz and Other Products

After just an 18-month run, Google has decided to fold Google Buzz, its first attempt to create a social network, along with other products like Jaiku, Code Search and Google Labs.

In a few weeks we'll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+, Google's VP of product development Bradley Horowitz wrote on Google's official blog. 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 using Google Takeout.

Google is also ridding of other platforms like microblogging service Jaiku, Code Search for finding open-source codes on the Internet, prototype trial ground Google Labs and the social features on iGoogle along with Buzz to direct attention to Google Plus. The move from Google, expected to take effect Jan. 15, 2012, is in effort to rid of small, doomed projects and winnow the company's product portfolio.

Launched in February 2010, Google Buzz was a social network similar to a Facebook and Twitter, if they had a love child, allowing users to post status updates, photos and videos to a Buzz feed. However, Google made a flub when its users publicly posted buzzes to all members in their Gmail contacts, creating quite a stir in user privacy.

Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past, Google vice president Bradley Horowitz said. We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today's announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome.

After its release on June 20, Google+ gained 10 million users during the trial phase. Following its opening to the public, the three-month-old social network Plus amassed over 40 million users.

People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started! CEO Larry Page said Thursday during an earnings report conference.

An incredible rate indeed, according to growth patterns data, which shows Google Plus has outperformed during its starting phase in comparison to Facebook, which has an estimated 750 to 800 million users.

However. while Google+ enjoyed a 1,269 percent spike in traffic after opening to the, traffic since September has dropped more than 60 percent, according to Chitika, which most likely prompted Google to dump Buzz to shift their focus to the new social network.

Page also said during the earnings report conference that the company will begin to create an automagical user experience on Google+, intertwining its other developed products for a more engaging user experience.

Since replacing former CEO Eric Schmidt in April, Page has killed off 20 Google products, including Aardvark, Desktop, Google Web Security and Image Labeler along with the recent round scrapping Buzz, which will go into effect in 2012.

Clearly, winnowing the product portfolio has done the company well in light of Google's third quarter earnings release. Google Inc.'s earning exceeded all estimates of its third quarter financial results, reporting revenues of $9.72 billion, 69 percent of which comes from Google-owned sites.