Google To Discontinue Google Labs

kai_hiwatari writes "Today, Google has announced that they are closing down Google Labs. They say this will help them prioritize their product effort. Google says closing Google Labs means ending many of their experiments. However, not every experiment will be gone. Google will be incorporating the Labs experiments they have decided to continue in other product areas. Android apps such as Google Goggles, Google Listen etc. will continue to be available in the Android Market."

Pity...

[Ibiwan]

...I actually used Sets [google.com] on a fairly regular basis. Check out it out before it's gone!

Only part of original not quoted by TFA . . .

[wrencherd]

. . . is this:

We’ll continue to push speed and innovation—the driving forces behind Google Labs—across all our products, as the early launch of the Google+ field trial last month showed.

It's a lot faster just to read the orig [blogspot.com].

Re:Killing Innovation?

[Microlith]

When Google first started developing an OS for cell phones it would have seemed like a crazy stretch for a search engine company, but Android is successful today.

Android, from day one, was a product like any other. It was not born in the Labs, it was purchased.

Re:So no more 20% personal time?

[creativeHavoc]

While many were left wondering, Google tells me that the company has no changes to announce with regards to the 20 Percent Time program; killing Labs doesn’t mean the discontinuation of the one day a week Googlers get to spend on “projects that aren’t necessarily in [their] job descriptions.” “We’ll continue to devote a subset of our time to newer and experiment projects,” Google representative Jason Friedenfelds tells me.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/20/20-percent/