We know Google as a creator or buyer of successful products on the internet. The company's most successful products with wide recognition and use by consumers are: Google Search, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Adsense/Adwords, Android and YouTube.
Lately, however, the company seems to be in a vicious cycle of creating or buying new products or services, which it retires shortly after.
A typical example of this is Google+. It was developed as Google's answer to the social network Facebook, and began to integrate it into other successful services of the company. For example, at one time in order to comment on YouTube you had to have a Google Plus account.
It should be mentioned that Google+ came to replace Google Buzz and Google Friend Connect, perhaps even Orkut.
Today we learned that another Google+ product, Hangouts on Air, is ceasing to exist as a service on the social network. The company announced the retirement of Hangouts on Air on September 12th, directing interested parties to YouTube Live.
On the other hand, it released Duo, which it had announced since May. The Duo app is one of two mobile messaging apps that the company announced.
The other is called Allo, and it will be a messaging app with an assistant. Both of the company's new apps are directly linked to your personal phone number. What does that mean?
Google wants to learn from your conversations, your web browsing, and your network of very close friends. The digital assistant app will support you like the usual “digital assistants” by answering your questions or making you a reservation at a restaurant.
So Google doesn't seem to worry about constantly releasing new products and retiring old ones that no longer fit the company's strategy.
What is the strategy? No one has stated it clearly (and we don't expect them to), but it seems to be one: information. All the complex applications, plans, and strategies that the company follows hide behind them the relentless hunt for information.
So it's very likely that Google will continue to create, or buy, products, and stop a few months or a few years later.
Even its most popular services, such as Gmail, should not be taken for granted and secure, as Google launched Inbox a while ago with similar functionality, which could well replace Gmail at some point.
Google undoubtedly develops great products, however, it is clear that the company does not think about the end user or reviews. Thus, it does not hesitate to discontinue various services, always aiming for easier and more universal access to information.
