20 Google Projects that get Failed (Updated)??

20 Google Projects

Google Projects that get Failed, Imagine you wake up one day and there is no Google anymore. No Gmail, no Google Maps, no Google Chrome, or Android, and no YouTube. I mean can you even imagine Google has been immensely successful in creating a bunch of products and services that our lives are so dependent on many of them.

Now can you believe Google also messed up a lot of things.

Well, that’s what we are going to see here 20 Google products or projects that get failed miserably.

  1. Google Answers
  2. Jaiku
  3. Google Buzz
  4. Google+
  5. Orkut
  6. Google Ride Finder
  7. Google Offers
  8. Goo.gl
  9. Knol
  10. Google Picasa
  11. Picnik
  12. Google Lively
  13. Google Allo
  14. Google now
  15. google nexus
  16. Project Tango
  17. Chromecast Audio
  18. Inbox by Gmail
  19. Project Ara
  20. Google camera

Google Answers

google answers
google answers

Let’s start off with Google Answers remember Yahoo Answers. I mean it still exists just that most of us don’t use it these days.

So, yeah Google Answers was an alternative with a bit of a twist. You post a question on Google Answers set a price that you’re willing to pay to get an answer so whoever takes the pay gets to answer you.

Well, it’s obvious why it failed people prefer getting answers for free it’s funny. Now we anyway use Google to find answers.


What if I said Google had a better version of Twitter? That was Jaiku it was founded by a couple of famous developers but was bought by Google later to expand the service let more people join the Platform.

In the process things went out and Jaiku kind of faded away.

Google Buzz

Google didn’t give up on their dream of building a social networking platform they came up with Google Buzz, not Google+ that was also a fail.

This is Google Buzz which was integrated right into Gmail you could post like comment just like on any other social media platform it was even integrated with Twitter to an extent.

Slowly it came to light that it had some serious privacy concerns. Google was using users Gmail data to push Google Buzz without asking the users.

This was unforgivable so Google just decided to scrap it and come up with yet another social media platform later.


Yeah, Google Plus and guess what that was also scrapped due to privacy concerns. According to The Wall Street Journal, there was a design flaw in the API that could expose private user data.

Wall Street says Google knew about this in 2018 itself but Google has acknowledged it only while announcing the shutdown of Google Plus a few weeks back.

Anyway, it’s now gone for a good while most of us didn’t really bother about the demise of these Google social Networks.



What really made a lot of us sad was the demise of Orkut.  Yep or could also belong to Google and it was the only social network comparable to what Facebook is now.

But, Orkut was extremely popular even in 2006-7-8. it had over 300 million users when Facebook was still crawling to get 200 million.

I personally loved Orkut have you used if you miss writing scraps.

Google Ride Finder

Now enough of the social network fails let’s look at some services that Google introduced that could have given tough fights to some compete for names today Google Ride finder this was available even before Uber.

It was available in 16 cities but for some reason, it was never expanded further. So, it kind of lost ground to uber that took the market by storm in a matter of months.

Google Offers

Google Offers if you’ve used Groupon or nearby then you know exactly what Google offers offered. Google actually tried and failed to buy Groupon that’s the reason they came up with their own service but Groupon is still alive but offers is dead.



Then Google’s URL short net was also pretty famous it was good I still have no idea why they had to shut it down.

One nice gesture from Google when they shut it down the recommended users to use bitly.com their number one rival in the URL short net market.


Next up Knol with Knol Google wanted to reverse the legendary Wikipedia. But it was obvious right from the get-go that Wikipedia was irreplaceable.

The fact that Wikipedia lets users create and manage pages makes it the best out there makes it manageable over a period of decades. So, Knol never going to catch up.

It’s really funny, now when you search for Knol the first result is a Wikipedia entry about dated.

Google Picasa

Now there are two photography related products that Google didn’t really mess up but had to move on from first one Google Picasa it was an amazing photo viewer and editor.

It was one of those things that when you get used to you cannot think about using an alternative. I still have because I installed on my PC and that’s my default Photo Viewer.

I don’t know when he’ll be able to move on.


The second one is Picnik an online photo editor it was a basic editor. Google eventually scrapped both of them because they wanted to focus on Google photos.

This is probably the best photo product available today.

Google Lively

Next one is Google lively it was a really lively concept. Based on chat rooms and communication as in Google literally, let you create virtual chat rooms invite people and talk to them.

Sounds really fancy and it was really fancy. That’s why I didn’t do well the novelty factor just wore out in a short span of time just like some fancy features on our smartphones they are nice to show off but we don’t really use them frequently.

Google Allo

Now Allo was another attempt by Google to make communication better it was like a combination of Whatsapp and Google assistant. But, it was discontinued recently because we were nobody used it.

There were already many messaging apps from Google and of course telegram and Whatsapp has been ruling the industry for a long time now.

Google now

Google now yeah it didn’t exactly die but a better version of it has been given a new name Google assistant.

Google Nexus

Same with Google Nexus smartphone series it’s now called Google pixel but that’s not the only difference. Pixel smartphones are designed to end by Google while Nexus phones were designed with the help of other brands.

Project Tango

Now project tango also supports the same fate because Google came up with a new software development kit called AR core. Which doesn’t require super high-end cameras but project tango demanded super high-end cameras.

Chromecast Audio

Next on the list Chromecast Audio amazing product in my opinion. But, there are similar products Bluetooth adapters can do the job actually Google just decided to focus on Google home for consumers. consumers audio needs and discontinued Chromecast Audio early.

Inbox by Gmail

This year speaking of products discontinued in 2019 Google also had to do away with inbox by Gmail app. I don’t know why it existed in the first place they could have implemented everything in the Gmail app itself which is what they are doing now after discontinuing inbox.

Project Ara

One of the most disappointing failures in Project Ara. It was a really ambitious project but one that could have been a game-changer in the smartphone industry modularity is still being encouraged by a few brands but Project Ara was on a whole different level.

Google camera

Last but not least Google camera app for all Android phones officially available on Play Store. It wasn’t a big deal back then because there was no HDR+, no portrait Mode, no Knight sight, and no pixel.

When Google launched the pixel phone they decided that Google camera should be picked as USB luckily some awesome developers are porting it to a handful of phones oh we get a taste of the latest Google camera features.



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