Google axes Mini enterprise search

Google will axe its Google Mini enterprise search product at the end of the month.

The $US2995-plus hardware and software bundle aimed to provide Google-quality search capabilities across intranets, file servers and business applications.

While Google said the product had "had a good run ... its functionality can be better provided by products like Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search and Google Commerce Search".

"We will of course continue to provide technical support to Mini customers for the duration of their contracts, and will reach out to them shortly with more details," the company noted.

Mini was not the only product casualty, as Google also took the axe to its iGoogle service.

iGoogle is a customisable dashboard that can be set as a personal homepage from which to consume mostly Google apps.

In a blog post, Google said the service would be "retired" on November 1 next year, giving users about 16 months "to adjust or export their data".

"We originally launched iGoogle in 2005 before anyone could fully imagine the ways that today's web and mobile apps would put personalised, real-time information at your fingertips," the company said.

"With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time, so we'll be winding it down."

Also on the Google hit list were the embeddable Google Talk Chatback, Symbian App Search, and Google Video, which was launched prior to the company's acquisition of YouTube but effectively duplicated the more popular service.