Google Details "Winter Cleaning," Closing Out Certain Services

For the past few years, Google's been making a concerted effort to act a little more mature. A little less "throwing things against the wall," and a little more focused. Every quarter or so, the company makes the tough decision to sunset certain projects that simply aren't impacting a large enough crowd. You have to make careful choices in terms of resources when you're running a company like Google, and now the company is announcing a "winter cleaning" that'll zap a few tools that many readers may be presently using. Starting 1/4/2013, several of the less popular Google Calendar features will be extinguished.


Perhaps more importantly, Google Sync -- which was designed to allow access to Google Mail, Calendar and Contacts via the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol -- will be eliminated. Existing users will be able to continue using the service, but everyone else will need to tap into CardDAV. The Issue Tracker Data API allows client applications to view and update issues on Project Hosting on Google Code in the form of Google Data API feeds, but it'll be shut down in June. Punchd is an app that keeps loyalty punch cards on your smartphone, and it'll be closed on June 7th. The Via link below details all of the changes, and you can feel free to shed a tear in the comments section.