Google Kills News Badges, Background Images, AdSense For Feeds & Webmaster Tools +1s

Oct 3, 2012 - 7:05 am 41 by
Filed Under Google

Google Webmaster Tools CleaningGoogle, late late Friday, announced they are doing more "spring cleaning" of limited used products and services or products and services they rather not continue with.

Here are the products and services closing:

  • AdSense for Feeds is closing on October 2, 2012 and by December 3, 2012, it will completely stop working.
  • Custom Home page backgrounds are going away next month and on October 16th you won't be able to upload new images.
  • Google News Badges is going away completely on October 15th.
  • Google News "Recommended Sections" is also going away on October 15th.
  • +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools is also going away on November 14th.
  • and much more, see this post.

I am a most upset about the AdSense for feeds but most surprised about the custom background image for Google home pages. The news badge, I was just waiting for but the recommended section is a bit surprising.

Forum discussion at Google News Help, WebmasterWorld and Google Web Search Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 8, 2026

Jun 8, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility This Weekend - Around June 6th

Jun 8, 2026 - 7:55 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

New Google Document On Third-Party SEO Tools, Services & Advice

Jun 8, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Updates Its Hiring An SEO Doc Warning On SEO Tools & AI Optimization

Jun 8, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Search Profiles Insights & Analytics

Jun 8, 2026 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Bing Gives Searchers A Way To Disable AI Copilot Answers

Jun 8, 2026 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: Shhh. We're At A Google+ Party