Google announces the imminent demise of Google Labs

by Steven Mostyn - Jul 21 2011, 05:53

If you know a little more about Google services than Joe Public, chances are you’ve enjoyed open access to upcoming features, enhancements and advances via the Google Labs platform.

Sadly, however, those days of playfully tinkering alongside Google’s developers look decidedly numbered after the search giant revealed its intention to remove such pre-launch access.

“We’ve decided to wind down Google Labs,” said Bill Coughran, senior vice president of Research and Systems Products in an official blog post.

“In many cases, this will mean ending Labs experiments,” he added. “In others we’ll incorporate Labs products and technologies into different product areas.”

The official blog post follows hot on the heels of a statement issued last week by CEO Larry Page, in which he explained that Google is striving to sharpen its focus on fewer products.

It seems a shame that Google is chopping Google Labs off at the knee, not least because its advanced access feature has helped developers hone the likes of popular services Google Maps, Google News and Google Trends.

Other Google elements to recently hit the scrap heap include health information organiser Google Health and home energy consumption monitor Google PowerMeter.

Google’s planned alterations will not affect in-product experimentation channels such as Gmail Labs or Maps Labs.

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