Official line
Focus moving to Google+.
Google · Social · Product
Google Buzz
Discontinued
2010–2011 · 1 year in market
Launched
Feb 9, 2010
Discontinued
Dec 15, 2011
Cause of death
Privacy backlash
Evidence
Unsourced
What was it?
A Gmail-attached social feed that auto-followed your contacts. Privacy firestorm, then a quiet burial.
Why it died
Editorial reading
Opt-out social from your email graph is how you get sued. Buzz was a warning Google did not fully hear.
Founder takeaway
Never auto-opt users into a public graph. Contact lists are not consent.
Sources
Unsourced — editorial reading
No primary source is attached yet. Treat the interpretation as editorial, not a citation.
Related graves
Same company, category, or cause of death.
RIP
Google Glass (Explorer)
2013–2015 · 2 yrs
A face-mounted computer that made civilians into ‘Glassholes.’ Privacy panic killed the consumer edition; enterprise limped on.
Wearables/Privacy backlash+37
RIP
Google Latitude
2009–2013 · 4 yrs
Share your live location with friends. Folded into Maps after the privacy conversation caught up.
Maps & Local/Privacy backlash+2
RIP
Google Offers
2011–2013 · 2 yrs
Google’s Groupon clone, launched at the peak of daily-deal mania and gone with the bubble.
Commerce/Too early / too late+40
RIP
Google Reader
2005–2013 · 8 yrs
The RSS reader a generation of journalists and power users treated as a daily driver. Killed as RSS faded and Google chased social.
Media & Publishing/Low usage+39