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."

Comments

Sucks

[skipkent]

Sucks since I don't have a data plan... But an (very short) explanation is here http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/websearch/yKG7BGro7QQ/ntAXQWWKj70J

Re:Sucks

[Albanach]

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.

Re:Sucks

[swillden]

Maybe someday they will actually get a marketing department that understands that the latest thing from "Fart Around Fridays" shouldn't always be "released" unless they have good reason to believe that it's sustainably profitable by some metric and they are willing to sustain it even if they are wrong in their projections. Should they choose to do so someday, it will be hard for them to become "adults" given their reputation over many years.

Actually, I think that's what has happened, and it's what's caused Google to acquire the bad reputation you speak of. When Larry Page took over a couple of years back, he immediately started demanding more focus on "world-changing" projects (at Google success is measured more by impact than by dollars; the assumption is that if you have a big enough impact there will be a way to make it profitable), and cutting the long tail of projects that weren't getting enough usage.

In your terms, Google is becoming an "adult" company, which is why they've been gradually canceling all of the non-hits which were introduced during the "throw anything and see what sticks" era -- like SMS search, assuming it's actually been cancelled. Google still does (and I hope will continue to do) more ambitious, speculative stuff than any other company out there, but there is definitely much more focus on demonstrating first that a project is going to be successful (i.e. hundreds of millions of users) than there used to be.

(Disclaimer: I work for Google, but these are my own opinions, not official company positions.)

Re:Killed because it wasn't a revenue generator

[Dputiger]

"Why is it that folks still have issues when a "Free" service suddenly is removed?"

Because having a service yanked out from under you is annoying? Furthermore, your use of the word "free" is somewhat limited. Google makes money off of users. It monetizes your search traffic, your emails, and tracks your site visitation patterns. It monitors which ads you click on, which you don't, and how to best use that data to better sell more ads. It leverages its share of the search and web services market in a number of ways to support these endeavors.

When you become part of the Google ecosystem, you are agreeing to share data with them that is incontrovertibly *valuable*, even if they never put a value on it, and no money changes hands. So you're right. No such thing as a free lunch. But when I use Google services, I'm paying them with my own personal usage data -- and they're obviously quite happy to use that data in a great many ways to "enhance" product offerings.

I'm not arguing that Google SMS deserved to live, or that Google is morally or legally in the wrong for closing it, but Google is compensated with information when I use its products. It may not cost me any money, but if I give you something you find valuable in exchange for a good or service, there's still an exchange taking place.

Re:Love it!

[iggymanz]

also one will get downmodded for pointing out that google can legitimately yank its free services any time it pleases, there is no moral obligation for it to provide any thing for free or to notify anyone when such free services are cut off.

thankfully, with its biggest service, the normal search engine, the free users won't get dumped because they are not the customer but the product and as such are worth money