Google to Shut Down Buzz as it Focuses on Google+

Google yesterday announced that it will be shutting down a number of its products in the next few months. The two most notable are Google Buzz and Jaiku, the latter it acquired in 2007. Google will also remove social features from iGoogle but will not shut down the whole product. Google Buzz and Buzz API will be shut down so that Google can focus on Google+.

Other products which Google expects to shut down are Code Search and University Research program for Google Search. Jaiku had Twitter like features and the acquisition by Google prompted rumours that maybe it was Google’s competition to Twitter. Google has failed in its quest to enter the social media scene with Google Wave and Buzz both failing to impress.

Google labs was shut down yesterday while Boutiques.com and the former Like.com websites will be replaced by Google Product Search. Google notes in the blog post “We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+.”