Google to retire iGoogle on November 1, 2013
Bad news for users of some of Google's lesser popular and known services. The company has just announced another round of service cleanups on the official company blog. Probably the most prominent service that Google plans to retire is iGoogle, a service that is offering users a personalized startpage that they can fill with custom gadgets. Gadgets include news, communication related tools or finance information like stock charts.
I know a few users who use iGoogle as their start page on the Internet, and they will be extremely disappointed that Google made the decision to close the service down. According to the announcement, iGoogle will be retired on November 1, 2013 to give users enough time to "adjust or export data". The core reason for the move? The rise of mobile platforms like Chrome and Android that have "eroded" the need for iGoogle over time.
Alternatives for iGoogle are My Yahoo or Netvibes among others.
Google Video, a service created by Google to conquer the video world, will also be retired completely. Google Video uploads were stopped in May 2009, and Google Video users have until August 20 to migrate, delete or download their content. All content that remains on Google Video after that time will automatically be migrated to YouTube as private content that users can access in the video manager on YouTube.
The recent acquisition of Meebo has put Google into a position to retire Google Talk Chatback, a widget that webmasters could embed on their websites to interact with site visitors. Google recommends that webmasters who did make use of Chatback check out the Meebo Bar instead.
Update: Meebo Bar also no longer available.
Google is also closing down Google Mini, which was part of the company's Enterprise Search offering. From July 31 on Google will discontinue the product and suggest to user other Google products like Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search or Google Commerce Search instead.
Lastly, Google will also be retiring the Symbian Search app in an effort to "focus on the company's mobile web search experience". Symbian phone users are encouraged to use google.com for their searches instead.
Are you affected by the new round of retirements?
Advertisement
Why would I ever want to replace iGoogle with ridiculous apps that waste my time by sending me all over the web for each individual item? iGoogle had everything I wanted in one place, increasing my profitability. It was customizable. Genius. Google is wrong when it believes that iGoogle wasn’t profitable for them — the goodwill customers had for Google due to seeing that homepage everyday was priceless. Ditto Google Reader. Now they have voluntarily thrown those customers to their rivals. Many have given up all Google products and now dis them on the web. Great business model, guys. Way to go.
Here you can see the top 10 iGoogle alternatives http://www.igooglealternatives.info/ and get a deep information regarding each alternatives.
MyYahoo
MyMSN
STARTME
NETVIBES
PROTOPAGE
SYMBALOO
ALLMYFAVES
STARTIFIC
IGHOME
START.IO
Yeah I know this is a bad news for igoogle users I was too a fan of igoogle. Now I am trying other alternate like http://www.startme.com or ighome.com. These are good and ad free!
A while ago I started using http://www.ighome.com and by now I am pretty comfortable with it. In some regards it is even better than iGoogle (that I will still miss!) In ighome you can also change layout, add a lot of gadgets and even add 12 ‘Black Bar’ custom links. Try it!
My family depends upon the google calendar to coordinate our care for my 89 year old mother. Now where do we go for such a great communication tool? What a great disappointment. Please reconsider . . . pretty please?!? Thank you.
google is blind anyway why not take
away their i
google is blind anyway why not take away their I
Google is trying to get more people to download Google Chrome by killing iGoogle. I HATE Google Chrome. I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT.!! Have you people lost your effin mind? There is NOTHING on the web that can touch iGoogle. Why? WHY WHY?
PLEASE leave iGoogle alone and with us!
It is useful, can be organized very personally, has an extensive resource of widgets, I love the selection of themes…. there’s just no end to the positives. Where are the negatives? Why would it be discontinued?
Unhappy in KS.
I am also a fan of iGoogle. I’m now trying out both Google Currents and Feedly as a replacement… http://dmjcomputerservices.com/blog/2012/09/20/google-currents-replacement-for-igoogle/
I believe that companies like google,that offer apps and tools for free are beginning to nudge people away from their PC’s to their phones and other compact devices.part of this move will be to eventually shut down most or all of the free services and at the same time,offer some of those same services as wellas brand new on compact devices. i believe there’s his shift toward geting the majority of online users from their desktops to compact devices,even laptops.i’ve heard for a loong time that the desktop pc will sooner than later be the old school way and i now believe it more than ever.i’m convinced that what we see google doing is part of this trend.we’ll see more online services that provide free apps and widgets,tools and so forth, shutting down and more advanced tools and apps being applied to laptops and iphones and all compact devices ,until the desktop pc is something that is used only by those who refuse the so popular “android” culture of today.i have no interest in compact devices,other than my mp3 players.i prefer my desktop pc and my 42 inch lcd monitor(television screen).why so many teens and 20 somethings are so comfortable with small screens i don’t understand.i’ll stick with my desktop even though it’ll begin collecting cobwebs sooner than later
UPDATE
It’s September 1st (in Australia :) AND the forum of iGoogle fan complaints is not only still going, but it’s GROWING! There have been thousands of posts and it seems that more people are finding the forum every day now and adding to the chorus.
The major theme is that if Google cares so little about iGoogle users, (most of whom won’t need or use the suggested other solutions and ‘Apps’) – then masses of angry iGoogle users are and will continue to leave ALL iGoogle products as iGoogle was our link and launchpad. I for one am waiting in hope that with all of the bad vibes about this perhaps Google will change and shy away from such a bad business decision and let us keep iGoogle. (hell I’d even pay a bit to keep it) However if or when it goes I GO TOO!
I am guessing as well that for everyone who finds the forum, there are hundreds of thousands who feel the
same way and don’t have the time or inclination to use forums but who WILL also leave Google. This model of trialing products for a few years and get us to love them and closing them down or trying to force people into using them in predetermined ways that make you use other products you don’t like. (such as Chrome) Really smacks of old style MS coercion which is why so many of us stopped using their products as well.
A sad day for a company who promised:
“Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line.”
Very very disappointed. I don’t use a smartphone and have no plans to get one anytime soon. But even if I did, that would not impact how I use iGoogle. iGoogle is my home start page with all of my bills due and personal reminders, and I can access it from ANY computer…any time, anywhere. THAT is what makes it so invaluable. Not looking forward to having to find a replacement. This sucks.
Well, for me as Software Professional, the decision of iGoogle going is disgusting and ridiculous, in fact, all of our IT team had iGoogle pages, probably just an “IT thing” to do. But for me, its the beginning of the end for Google, to stop such an excellent service.
you have a point Fawad. Google has shown its true colors, I am considering ending iRelationship w/ all things Google…while its still iDecision (oh, and I’ll want my ring back too!)
LOL You made me smile mate, cheers.
Two words:
BULLSHIT & BOO!
I like iGoogle. Bummer. Question. How will I now easily access my gmail account? With iGoogle it is right on my home page. Can I do that somewhere else?
from google search page, look at the top nav bar and Gmail should be prominently displayed there.
Obviously Google was tipped off on facebook/yahoo settlement
Had been using igoogle for several years and liked it very much. Very stupid decision by Google in my opinion.
Have already switched over to Myway (a very nice, free service that is similar to igoogle).
*cry* – iGoogle has been my brain organiser for years, with the awesome Teahouse theme which makes me feel good every day when I fire up my pc or laptops. I love my iGoogle.
It made me a very loyal Google user. Once it goes, I won’t feel quite the same :(
I use Teahouse iGoogle like a PP… I will miss the little fox, his frieinds, the monkey, the 3am ghosts… It’s a shame they weren’t able to monetize iGoogle. I’d tolerate some ad space if it meant saving my beloved start page.
Good decision by Google. iGoogle was good for the time it came out but things move on. After using the Win 8 consumer preview I see no no need for it. All is available on your opening interface. Change is necessary in the field Microsoft is in.
Very disappointing. iGoogle is also my homepage with gadgets for calendar, gqueues, gmail & rss reader. Its my productivity dashboard for my day. Has everything I need to be doing for the day in one place without having to visit different websites. Grrrrr. I also use Firefox, so I hope they come up with an iGoogle replacement where I can SEE all my info on one page, not just links to each website.
Stupid move Google. :(
I’m always using iGoogle. it’s the dashboard of my Chrome. How can Google be so cruel?
Just the excuse I needed to jump the google ship altogether. Probably not what they wanted, but when enough of us do it, they wil think twice–or hell, at least once–when they make decisions like this with no regard to the impact on the end user they courted so passionately in the beginning.
Yeah, Google is starting to lose its luster.
I do not see how having a tablet or a smart phone makes iGoogle unnecessary.
I have a Galaxy Nexus, and an iPad, but I still use iGoogle on both. (BTW, after four Android phones, I’ll probably move back to iOS when the next iPhone comes out.)
I do most of my browsing on my desktop or laptop, on on my 60″ plasma TV, it’s just easier. I use Firefox, or Safari — Chrome is just not there for me (no good History and no plugin like History Submenus in FF).
Not having iGoogle will probably push me to Yahoo (NetVibes just sucks), which means that at some point Google Search may also lose me.
Stupid, but also disconcerting: Google seems to be cancelling too many services too often, without offering seamless next level replacements.
Not too confidence inspiring.
One of the reason I will never trust any iCloud solution : one day or the other the provider will stop its service.
Don’t be EVIL.
This is pretty EVIL, google! Get everyone using your service, then discontinue it abruptly. WTF, over?
Alright ustart.org seems like a fine replacement though I will miss IGoogle aswell.
Too bad Google, you’re losing a lot of goodwill by canning iGoogle.
iGoogle has been my start page of choice for years – on many computers with different OS, different browsers, at home, work, everywhere. it’s the first thing I configure on a new/different machine.
iGoogle very elegantly brought together the RSS feeds I want to read and has great little apps for looking up stuff thet I would otherwise have to open many different sites for and use many different UIs.
iGoogle is far and away the best of breed. I tried a few alternatives, and the best fit so far is ustart.org
It’s missing the gadgets for reference lookup, but RSS handling is OK.
I’m moving my support elsewhere. It’s a shame google didn’t monetize igoogle enough for it to pay its way, especially with the huge amount of eyeball time a homepage gets.
I am very sad. According to Google, I must be eroding too because I use a desktop computer and do not use a cell phone with mobile apps. I like Firefox and do not want to have to switch to chrome. My iGoogle page has everything I need – news feeds, converters, a game, a notepad, etc. Shutting down iGoogle will leave me without many of these valued services. It is very disrespectful of Google to do this to many users who do not like to be forced to use what Google thinks is best for them.
Does anyone know if Google Reader will be spared? If not any alternative RSS readers that are like this?
I’m saddened to hear this. I use iGoogle every day. I’ve got my news and RSS, of course, but I’ve also found a couple of photo widgets — birds and travel — that make my personalized page a beautiful place to go, too. I’m not sure I can replicate that functionality on My Yahoo! or NetVibes.
This makes no sense at all. I DO have an Android smartphone, which I love, but I still use a desktop every day and like to have iGoogle open to check headlines and daydream about places I’d like to visit :)
Someone explain to me how Chrome is a substitute for iGoogle? Does it have personalized aggregation built in? I’m happy with FF, so haven’t really given Chrome a try.
Very disappointed. Like everyone else I don’t see how removing iGoogle has anything to do with mobile devices. I don’t use it on my mobile device, I use it on my desktop, every day.
Recent news – not everyone has an Android phone or uses Chrome on a daily basis.
If google is going to play retard then I’ll have to look for competitors’ services.
I am very disappointed.
IF I were the strategic director of Google I integrate IGoogle to Google+. This would be the perfect solution.
Been using Igoogle as my start page for years. Guess I’ll give Netvibes a try.
Well I moved to igoogle from MyYahoo.
Moving back now…
I’ll think twice about using google services in the future.
very disappointed, it was quite useful…. I will look for something similar now :(
Its quite sure that google kills those products and service in which it determines their growth is stagnated. I wonder, why igoogle is next?
Though i have used this product for quite a few months, i really liked it. A personalized desktop experience for user who uses google services aggregated at one place.
In my experience the reason could be
– Proliferation of web and native apps adopted by user.
– Android usage. I don’t know about other places, but in India every third person is having an android phone
– May be limited in product innovation. After all its an aggregator of various services
– Lots of aggregator services on internet
Please sign this petition to save iGoogle.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/dont-kill-the-igoogle-webportal.html
A better use of your time would be to contact Mozilla/Firefox to ask them to make something comparable. Google isn’t going to change its mind.
Also disappointed by iGoogle going. Been using it for years.
But I suspect the real reason for its demise is they’re trying to push people toward Chrome – which I don’t like and won’t use.
IMO, the only reason Google is shutting down iGoogle is to FORCE people to move to Chrome. I hate Chrome so I sent Mozilla/Firefox a product suggestion to make us something comparable to iGoogle. I can only hope and pray that Mozilla/Firefox listens and delivers.
I agree with you completely!
Upset about the iGoogle news. I been using it as my startpage for years!
Good opportunity for someone to come up with a similar thing, because the arguments Google gives for closing down the service are not true. There are still lots of advantages in using a condensed startpage and, with a little imagination, you could make good money from this kind of service.
The iGoogle Google Reader widget is what I rely on most for my RSS feeds. Anyone have a recommendation of an equally funtional and useful RSS reader on a homepage?
Really disappointed in Google for killing iGoogle. Not everyone likes browsing the Internet on their phone. I liked using iGoogle as my home page and now it looks like i’ll have to find something else like it. They could at least explain how to migrate your ish to another site.
Really sad about igoogle, I been using it for a couple years now, its the first thing I see when I open my browser. Great time saver, the information of dozens of sites I frequents condensed into one page.
This is a really stupid decision. How many hundreds of millions of PC users out there do NOT own either a Chromebook or an Android tablet? We use DESKTOPS, Google!
I find iGoogle very useful for organizing my start page. I have calendar, weather forecast, date/time, movies and access to Gmail right on that page. A second page has all my news feeds and access to Google Reader.
So now (well, in 2013) I will have to figure out how to do all that manually either in the browser or on the desktop somehow (I run Linux, so there’s probably a way.)
Further, I can’t understand how iGoogle is such a massive drain on Google services that it needs to be retired. Google Video I can understand – it’s obviously going to be a bandwidth and space hog and essentially duplicates YouTube. But iGoogle? What’s the issue there?
Lately Google has been making some very crappy decisions, with regard to Chrome design and other matters. I suppose this is typical of such a large corporation – the decisions inevitably deteriorate over time until the company falls apart completely.
Keep that in mind as all of us store more and more stuff into Google – some day it won’t be there!
you have a point Richard. Google has shown its true colors, I am considering ending the relationship w/ all things Google…while its still MYdecision (oh, I’ll want my ring back too)
DAMN I’ve been using iGoogle for a long time as my homepage, and it’s such a great place to put all my RSS feeds at once… really disappointed. I don’t have a smartphone or anything so all of the mobile platforming options are unavailable to me :|
I will migrate iGoogle data to Netvibes… Compared to MyYahoo, Netvibes has less ads…
f.u….c.k larry page. WTF is this?
Why dammit, why would you do that to iGoogle :(
This is pretty lame. I suppose I’m gonna have to make my Google reader page my home now…
Why don’t you try http://www.startific.com ? I think it’s a GOOD different and more of an upgrade (from some point of views) than the soon defunct iGoogle. Looks way better and it’s quite fun to use.
one I think you missed..
Google selling off Sketchup…
> Are you affected by the new round of retirements?
No, not at all.
Strange decision, the iGoogle one. In my opinion of course.
Agreed. I don’t see why they feel the need to pull the plug on it, and their reasoning doesn’t really make sense. Mobile platforms provide similar functionality through apps, true, but they are mobile platforms. If I want a dynamic start page with a handful of little apps on my desktop I can’t exactly install Android. Isn’t that what iGoogle was for in the first place?
In fact you can install Android using Eclipse and Android SDK, for example. Also I heard people talks about VirtualBox Android builds (there should be information on Internet).
But that might be not good resource-wise.
It could have something to do with profitability. It seems to me that Google is retiring or discontinuing every service that is not profitable, or does not have have a chance of becoming profitable.