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Has Google Shut Down SMS Search?
hypnosec writes "Users in the US are reporting that Google has allegedly shut down its SMS Search service without any official announcement or notification. According to initial reports users are getting a 'SMS search has been shutdown' message. Navigating to the official Google Mobile website and clicking on SMS Search yields nothing but 404 – Page not found error."
It's quite disappointing given they already abolished the Google 411 service. There are still plenty of folk without data plans, or who find themselves roaming where they have minutes and text messages but no data.
I understand Google's desire to move the world forward, but often these interfaces were useful, and sometimes they were they only interface available.
The idea that this is down to focusing on other products really doesn't wash. The products were both stable and likely taking almost no resources to maintain. If they did need anything to support them, I doubt it would be beyond the capability of an intern.
There are two issues from the user's perspective when a free service is suddenly shutdown:
1. The free service has become an expectation and important part of their routine.
2. There is no way to plan for alternatives, if they even exist,
No, there is no legal obligation for Google to keep such a service running, but the least they could have done is give a few weeks or months of warning, maybe point out equivalent services (sms based), and thus offer people a way to migrate. Instead, they just dropped everyone on the floor and said, "Go sign up for a data plan <shrug>"
--Udo.
I get downmodded every time I bring this up...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
They didn't have a monthly/yearly contract with you to buy your information. They decided to discontinue buying you. Tough.
Maybe you should try an arrangement with another company where you are the actual customer, rather than their product.
* your use of the word "free" is somewhat limited. Google makes money off of users *
You've almost figured it out. But you are google's product. or, to put it in ranching terms, you are the cattle. a rancher has no obligation to the cattle even though the rancher makes money off of it. at one year they decide which animals will be culled and the unlucky beast gets a bullet to the brain. this is what google is doing to the users of certain services.
so the exchange of which you speak still obligates google for nothing.
I hate to say this but frankly its true...its Google, what did you or anybody else expect?
Its one of "those" rules, like how you don't buy a MSFT mobile product before the press has officially declared it a hit as MSFT pulls the plug quickly, in the same vein one doesn't use nor should care about any Google service that has less than 10 million users because with Google there really only is two states of a service, runaway hit or dying. There really seems to be no third state with them and it doesn't even matter if they are making enough in ads from a product that it isn't losing money, either its a smash hit and stays that way or its adios.
Its a damned shame and I felt sorry for those in the early days who didn't have this rule but by now it should be obvious that is just how things work at Google.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Rain is a free service. Farmers have issues when it doesn't appear. If that doesn't make sense to you, I don't know what to tell you.
Why is it that folks still have issues when a "Free" service suddenly is removed?
With Google now there is starting to become a worrying pattern where they use their dominant search position and money press to launch free services that push competitors out of the market, and then start charge for it or close it down when the competitors are dead. As they did with Maps. This I have a bigger problem with than just the user annoyance caused by the disappearance of a free service.
Good point.
If Google doesn't continue to create new public projects with a high subsequent cancellation rate, they probably can overcome the reputation. Speculative stuff is good, but it would be helpful if Google did a better job of "we are playing with this" (appealing to early adopters and geeks) vs. "we stand behind this" (appealing to the mass market) and carefully label projects as such and thoughtfully transition from "playing" to "stand behind". Just declaring everything "beta" forever wasn't terribly helpful.
The SMS search was not anything I ever used, but abandoning iGoogle (with plenty of notice!) disappoints me - it works, it seems like it should be very low overhead to maintain, and it does everything I need. I would think that Google could do a lot with knowing what I click on, what I have on my page, even when I click on stuff and monetize that, but I guess that wasn't in the cards.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading