Google announced the closure of several more services as part of their continued effort to conduct "spring cleaning" on various properties.
One of those moves was to redirect patents.google.com to google.com, but you'll see Patent Search is still alive and well. Google Patent Search launched in late 2006 and has been a great search service compared to the much slower US Patent and Trademark Office web site search feature.
When you are redirected, Google keeps the search restricted to their patent index:
Google also killed Google Related, which launched about 8 months ago. Google said it "isn’t experiencing the kind of adoption we'd like." So they are killing it off "so the Related team can focus on creating more magic moments across other Google products."
Here is what Google is changing or closing down:
- Google Flu Vaccine Finder
- Google Related
- Google Sync for BlackBerry
- Mobile web app for Google Talk.
- One Pass
- Patent Search homepage
- Picasa for Linux
- Picasa Web Albums Uploader for Mac
- Picasa Web Albums Plugin for iPhoto
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.
