Google is the absolute master of the internet, the one who decides the sites where we go to browse by acting as an intermediary between users and all the other websites that, otherwise, would be almost impossible to find.Behind that blank page with the text box for internet search, Google hides a whole world of additional services, some very famous and some not so famous.
By registering with a Google Account in fact, you can access many web applications including, the best known, are Gmail, Blogger, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Earth, Docs and Books.
In this article we see those instead lesser known Google services, those more useful and then also Google's failures, projects that have been abandoned and now almost dead.
The Google world can be seen in full on the page Google New with all the links to start the online services offered.
Part One: The most useful and best Google services
1) Google Translate is the automatic translator of web pages written in other languages.
2) Google custom search allows you to customize Google search results with your own custom search engine.
3) Google Developers access point for app developers related to Google services.
4) Google News is the page with news from all over the world (or the whole city) with customizable content.
5) Google Patent Search it is in English only and refers to the search for patents for aspiring inventors.
6) Google Alert warns if they are talking about you or another person on the internet.
7) Google Trends it is used to view internet search statistics in a country of the world.
8) Google Takeout is the Google web page from which to save personal data saved in Blogger, Google Drive, Contacts and others.
9) Google Places to advertise for free on the internet if you want to promote your business or shop.
10 ) Google Sites is the online tool to create websites without programming.
11 ) Google Bookmarks, to save your favorites.
12 ) Google Hangouts, to call or send messages.
13 ) Google Duo, online videochat to make free video calls from PC and smartphone
14 ) Google Meet, to make videoconferences.
Part Two: Forgotten Projects and Google Failures
Even Google gets it wrong every now and then, and when it does, the service is shut down and rendered unusable.Just out of curiosity, here the Google Flop Numbers in these last years.
1) Google Video it was closed in 2009 because it was completely replaced by YouTube.
2) Google Catalog Search it was a project to catalog commercial products, which then happened with the Books and Google Books.
3) Google Notebook it was an online service for taking notes via browser; now you can use Google Reader and Notebook is not accepting new users.
4) Dodgeball was a geolocation service that has now been replaced with Google Latitude.
5) Jaiku it was supposed to be Google's Twitter but the project had little success, development was stopped.
6) Google Mashup Editor is a place for developers to test and run what they work on.
Google has chosen to replace it with their App Engine.
7) Lively it was Google's Second Life, a social network with chats, avatars and 3D graphics.
It is not known why it was closed quickly, perhaps it was too expensive.
8) Google Print Ads it was supposed to be a project to advertise in paper newspapers.
9) Google Answers it was a site similar to the famous Yahoo Answers where users ask questions and respond by creating a large participatory forum.
Google's Answers has gone bankrupt and, perhaps, will be replaced with Ardwark
10 ) Google Wave it was supposed to be the online communication revolution and, instead, it failed because no one really understood what it was for and how it was used.
11 ) Orkut, Google's Facebook, was little used and then withdrawn.
12 ) Google Labs was where i was new Google products to try in preview that today no longer exists.
13 ) Google Pack was the package of programs recommended by Google to less experienced users for basic computer use with RealPlayer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Avast Antivirus, Skype and even the Google Toolbar.
14 ) iGoogle, the customizable home page.
15 ) Google Reader which has been the most used feed reader for many years.
16 ) Google Latitude, the tracking service for Android.
17 ) Google Sidewiki, a browser toolbar that allowed you to add public comments to any web page.
18 ) Aardvark, a service to which you can ask questions to get answers immediately.
19 ) Google Sidewiki was a browser toolbar that allows you to add public comments on any web page.
20 ) Google Reader, the online RSS feed reader.
21 ) Google Search Blog
22 ) Panoramio, photo service for Google Maps.
23 ) Google Schemer, it was a service where you can get advice from friends.
24 ) Google Moderator, a service where you can share ideas.
25 ) Google Allo, the AI powered chat that no one has ever used.
26 ) Google+, the social network that had to compete with Facebook, a great failure for Google
27 ) inbox, the alternative version of Gmail, unfortunately withdrawn.
28 ) Picasa, image management program still used today but withdrawn in 2015.
29 ) Google URL Shortner, online service to shorten URLs, withdrawn and closed.
The complete list of closed, failed and withdrawn Google projects has been collected on the KilledByGoogle site
Third part: the less known Google tools and sites I'm in another article.
Best Google services: the most useful, the least known and the failures
