In Only two days ago, Larry Page had announced that Google+ has more than 40 million users, and now the announcement comes that Google Buzz will be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.
The announcement to shut down Google Buzz has come from the Google Vice President Bradley Horowitz, who is also one of the Google+ leaders. In his latest blog post, he has declared that the company plans to shutter Buzz "in a few weeks." He noted that Buzz users will be able to view the posts created on Buzz in their Google Profile, and download them using Google Takeout.
The message is rather crisp. There is no room for lofty eulogies in Googles highly competitive world. The blog post says, In a few weeks well shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won't be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.
The final paragraph in Bradley Horowitzs blog post says, Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past. We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; todays announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome.
Ever since Google Buzz took off in February 2010, users regarded it with suspicion. Many users raised concerns over privacy issues. Initially, it was difficult to make the list of a user's followers private. Those concerns led the Federal Trade Commission to press Google to agree to a "comprehensive privacy program" this past March.
Ever since Google+ took off, analysts had been predicting that Google Buzz would be axed. Now it's official. Google+ is off to a much better start, with 40 million members, so it's unlikely that Google will give up on its newest social network so easily. Buzz isn't the only Google business to get the axe effect treatment. The company is also shutting down its Google Labs, a move it announced in July.
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