Google shuts down five products

SAN FRANCISCO - Google on Tuesday announced to shut down five products which are not core to its business.

Among the five products to be axed, the most notable are iGoogle, the search giant's personalized homepage service and Google Video.

iGoogle will be axed on November 1, 2013, giving users 16 months to adjust or export their data, said Google in its official blog. It said that with today's web and mobile apps, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time.

For Google Video, which stopped taking uploads in May 2009, its remaining hosted content will be moved to YouTube this summer and users need to migrate, delete or downloaded their content before August20.

The other services getting axed are Google Mini, part of Google 's enterprise search products since 2005; Google Talk Chatback which allows websites to embed a Google Talk widget to chat with visitors; and Symbian Search App.

"Closing products always involves tough choices, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users. Streamlining our services enables us to focus on creating beautiful technology that will improve people's lives," said the company.

After co-founder Larry Page took over the position of chief executive officer, Google has closed more than 30 products in several rounds of "house-cleaning," shutting down products that were only being used by a limited number of users.