Official reason
Low usage; Labs winding down.
Google · Social
Google Sidewiki
RIP
2009–2011 · 2 years in market
A browser sidebar for commenting on any page. The open web’s last annotation dream at Google.
Launched
Sep 23, 2009
Discontinued
Dec 1, 2011
Cause of death
Low usage
What actually happened
Annotations without a social graph are graffiti. Spam arrived before community.
Lesson
Page-level comments need identity, moderation, and a reason the site owner wants them.
Related autopsies
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
X (Twitter)
RIP
Legacy verification
2009–2022 · 13 yrs
The blue check as a signal of identity, not payment. Retired when checks went on sale.
Social/Strategic refocus+39
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
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