Google Health and PowerMeter Shutting Down

Posted 06/24/2011 at 3:02pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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Everytime Google starts a blog post with "An update on", we cring, knowing that a tool or product is getting the axe. Today, two Google products that failed to receive wide support are being killed by Mountain View. Google Health and Google PowerMeter are described in the recent blog post as “influential models” that just failed to scale. Google is offering users plenty of time to get data out before the plug is completely pulled, though.

Google Health was launched as a way for users to organize and analyze their own health information. Google admits that adoption was limited to the tech-savvy crowd, but they believe the idea can still help millions of people. Health is going to be shut down on January 1, 2012, but data can still be exported until January 1, 2013.

Google PowerMeter was a product of Google.org, the search giant’s non-profit wing. This service allowed users to monitor their energy usage with an array of charts and graphs. It was total data-porn, but the service relied on the installation of “smart meters” in homes. Since most municipalities aren’t yet up for that, it didn’t happen. Total sunset on PowerMeter is set for September 16, 2011.