Google Pulls the Plug on Labs

Google announced on its blog that it's shutting down Google Labs. In a post entitled. "More Wood Behind Fewer Arrows", they said that while they've launched a lot of products based on prototypes in the labs like Google Goggles and Google Reader, for them, greater focus "is crucial if they want to make extraordinary products ahead". Google Labs is where Google's users can play around with their products and provide feedback directly to Google's engineers.

No more whacky generic experiments

Google says that many of the Labs' products that are Android apps today will continue to be available in the Android Market. As far as Labs experiments go, some will stop, others will be integrated into different product areas. They also said that they're not stopping in-product experimentation channels like Gmail Labs and Maps Labs. They will continue to experiment with new features with each of their products. They said, "We’ll continue to push speed and innovation—the driving forces behind Google Labs—across all our products, as the early launch of the Google+ field trial last month showed."