March 14, 2013

Google Spring Cleaning

Today Google announced several features and services they plan to retire as part of their fall/spring cleaning. Here is a list of items. For more details, visit: Google's Spring Cleaning


  • Apps Script will be deprecating the GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets in order to focus efforts on Html Service. The GUI Builder will continue to be available until September 16, 2013. 
  • CalDAV API will become available for whitelisted developers, and will be shut down for other developers on September 16, 2013. 
  • Google Building Maker helped people to make three-dimensional building models for Google Earth and Maps. It will be retired on June 1, 2013 but users are still able to access and export their models from the 3D Warehouse. 
  • Google Cloud Connect is a plug-in to help people work in the cloud by automatically saving Microsoft Office files from Windows PCs in Google Drive. But installing Google Drive on your desktop achieves the same thing more effectively—and Drive works not only on Windows, but also on Mac, Android and iOS devices. Existing users will no longer be able to use Cloud Connect as of April 30, 2013. 
  • Google Reader will retire on July 1, 2013. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
  • Beginning next week, March 18 Google is ending support for the Google Voice App for Blackberry. For Blackberry users who want to continue using Google Voice, we recommend they use our HTML5 app, which is more secure and easier for Google to keep up to date. 
  • Search API for Shopping, which has enabled developers to create shopping apps based on Google’s Product Search data, will shut down on September 16, 2013.  Google is shifting focus to concentrate on creating a better shopping experience for users through Google Shopping.
  • Beginning today, March 13, Google no longer sells or provides updates for Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows. Existing customers will continue to be able to download the software and can contact Google for support.