Google to Shutter Its Free Search
In response to the overwhelming turnout for Day Without Google, the search giant has announced it will withdraw its flagship product, the Google search engine, later in April.
“We will continue to provide our enterprise search solutions and popular hosted applications, but we know when we’re not wanted,” sniffed a Google spokesperson via email this afternoon. “Google plans to concentrate its resources on continuing innovation in areas other than search.”
Google.com’s reported 200 million hits per day dropped to fewer than two dozen hits today as a result of the 2008 DWG initiative, as web users worldwide avoided the famous search engine and used alternate engines instead. Google’s public-facing search page will be taken down “after a short transition period.” It has not yet been announced what will replace the iconic page.
