In an effort to prioritize product efforts, Google will be slowly shutting down Google Labs — home to such experimental projects as Google Body, Swiffy, and Docs and Spreadsheets.
Google Labs was the incubator for such popular product add-ons such as the “Undo” button in Gmail–which gives you the ability to call back an email for up to several seconds after you’ve let fly–leading some to fear that the site shut-down would lead to certain Labs-based functions disappearing. Not so, according to Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds, who told Wired that “in-product experimentation channels like Gmail Labs or Maps Labs” would continue, and Google will “continue to experiment with new features in each of our products.”
As for the non-product-specific projects, some will be retired while others will have the chance to graduate to finished products; most of the Labs projects that wound up as Android Apps, such as Google Goggles, will remain in the Android marketplace.
The move to shutter Labs follows the announcement last month that Google Health and Google PowerMeter would be coming to an end; the streamlining is part of a larger strategy to focus resources–something Larry Page referred to as “more wood behind fewer arrows” during Mountain View’s most recent earnings call.
Google has not announced any time line for the closing, though updates will be available on the Google Labs website.
Read more at Wired.
