Google on Wednesday announced the continuation of its "spring cleaning" that began in 2011, with the latest services to fall under the hatchet being Google Reader and the desktop version of Snapseed, among others.
In a post to the company's official blog, SVP Technical Infrastructure Urs Hölzle said that Reader's numbers have declined over the past few years, and Google will thus retire the service on July 1, 2013. Many users rely on Google Reader to aggregate the RSS feeds of their favorite websites, and there are a multitude of third-party apps already tightly integrated with the service.
According to Google, current users can export their data and subscriptions with Google Takeout over the next four months.
As for Snapseed, Google is immediately stopping sales and updates for the Mac and Windows desktop versions of the title, though existing customers can still download the software and will be offered continued support. The free Snapseed mobile apps for iOS and Android will live on.
The remaining Google services announced as reaching end-of-life:
- Apps Script will be deprecating the GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets. GUI Builder will continue to be available until September 16.
- CalDAV API will become available for whitelisted developers, and will be shut down for other developers on September 16.
- Google Building Maker to retire on June 1.
- Google Cloud Connect to retire on April 30.
- Google Voice App for Blackberry ends service "next week."
- Search API for Shopping to retire on on September 16.
Google's latest round of housecleaning has sparked some controversy within the online community, though the company feels it necessary to allocate resources where they are most needed.