Google is phasing out a service that allowsmillions of people to personalize its home page with applications such asweather updates and stock quotes.
The customization service, known as iGoogle, will be turnedoff in November 2013. The mobile version of iGoogle will be discontinued at theend of this month.
Google Inc. disclosed its plans this week. It's being sweptout as part of a periodic housecleaning that has seen Google scrap more than 30products since co-founder Larry Page became CEO 15 months ago.
Page has been trying to sharpen Google's focus on search,advertising, video, social networking and mobile devices.
The scheduled termination of iGoogle will come eight yearsafter Google first offered the personalization tool. It had been seen as a wayto encourage people to return to Google more frequently for information theyare interested in. It also encouraged more people to create Google accounts,which made it easier for the company to identify their individual interests.
The climate has changed since iGoogle started as anunbranded personal page in 2005.
These days, many people get weather and other informationthrough applications they install on smartphones and tablet computers. Peoplewho use Google's Chrome browser can also access a variety of apps withfunctions offered by iGoogle.
"The need for iGoogle has eroded over time," MattEichner, Google's general manager of global enterprise search, wrote in aTuesday blog post.
Google said tens of millions of people used iGoogle withinits first two years of existence, making it the company's fastest-growingservice in early 2007. The company hasn't disclosed more recent figures.
Besides its customization service, Google also is preparingto jettison several other products, including a little-used online videoservice that the company started before it bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.76billion.
Google stopped accepting new clips on Google Video in May2009. Later this summer, Google Video's remaining content will be transferredto YouTube. Google Video users will have until Aug. 20 to delete or transfertheir clips to another location.
