Google is the absolute master of the internet, the one who decides the sites where we go to surf by acting as an intermediary between users and all other websites that, otherwise, would be almost impossible to find. Behind that blank page with the text box for internet search, Google hides a whole world of additional services, some very famous and others less so.
By registering with a Google account you can in fact access many web applications including, the best known ones, are Gmail, Blogger, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Earth, Docs and Books.
In this article we see instead those lesser known Google services, the most useful ones and then also the failures of Google, projects that have been abandoned and now almost dead.
The Google world can be seen in full on the Google New page with all the links to start the online services offered.
Part One: the most useful and best Google services
1) Google Translate is the automatic translator of web pages written in other languages.
2) Google personalized search allows you to customize Google search results with your own personalized search engine.
3) Google Developers access point for app developers linked to Google services.
4) Google News is the page with news from all over the world (or all over Italy) with customizable content.
5) Google Patent Search is only in English and refers to the search for patents for aspiring inventors.
6) Google Alert warns if you are talking about yourself or another person on the internet.
7) Google Trends is used to view internet search statistics in a country of the world.
8) Google Takeout is the Google web page from which to save personal data saved in Blogger, Google Drive, Contacts and others.
9) Google Places to advertise for free on the internet if you want to promote your business or shop.
10) Google Sites is the online tool to create websites without programming.
11) Google Bookmarks, to save your favorites.
12) Google Hangouts, to call or send messages.
13) Google Duo, online video chat to make free video calls from PC and smartphone
Part two: Google's forgotten plans and failures
Google also makes mistakes every now and then, and when it does, the service is closed and rendered unusable.Just out of curiosity, here are the many Google flops in recent years.
1) Google Video was closed in 2009 because it was totally replaced by YouTube.
2) Google Catalog Search was a project to catalog commercial products, which then happened with Books and Google Books.
3) Google Notebook was an online service for taking notes via browser; now you can use Google Reader and Notebook does not accept new users.
4) Dodgeball was a geographic location service which has now been replaced with Google Latitude.
5) Jaiku was supposed to be Google's Twitter but the project had little success, development was stopped.
6) Google Mashup Editor is a place for developers to test and run what they work on.
Google has chosen to replace it with their App Engine.
7) Lively was Google's Second Life, a social network with chats, avatars and 3D graphics.
It is not known why it was closed quickly, perhaps it was too expensive.
8) Google Print Ads was supposed to be a project to bring advertising in the paper newspapers.
9) Google Answers was a site similar to the famous Yahoo Answers where users ask questions and respond by creating a large participatory forum.
Google Answers has gone bankrupt and will perhaps be replaced with Ardwark
10) Google Wave was supposed to be the revolution of online communication and, instead, it failed because nobody really understood what it was used for and how it should be used.
11) Orkut, Google's Facebook, has been little used and then withdrawn.
12) Google Labs was where the new Google products were found to try in preview that today no longer exists.
13) Google Pack was the package of programs recommended by Google to less experienced users for a basic use of the computer with RealPlayer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Antivirus Avast, Skype and even the Google Toolbar.
14) iGoogle, the customizable home page.
15) Google Reader which has been the most used feed reader for many years.
16) Google Latitude, the tracking service for Android.
17) Google Sidewiki, a browser toolbar that allowed you to add public comments on any web page.
18) Aardvark, a service to ask questions for immediate answers.
19) Google Sidewiki was a browser toolbar that allows you to add public comments on any web page.
20) Google Reader, the online RSS feed reader.
21) Google Blog Search
22) Panoramio, photo service for Google Maps.
23) Google Schemer, it was a service where you could get advice from friends.
24) Google Moderator, a service where you can share ideas.
25) Google Allo, the chat powered by artificial intelligence that has never used anyone.
26) Google+, the social network that had to compete with Facebook, a great failure for Google
27) Inbox, the alternative version of Gmail, unfortunately withdrawn.
28) Picasa, image management program still used today but withdrawn in 2015.
29) Google URL Shortner, online service to shorten URL, withdrawn and closed.
The complete list of closed, failed and withdrawn Google projects has been collected on the KilledByGoogle site
Part three: the lesser known Google tools and sites are in another article.
