Google kills iGoogle

Google has said that it’s killing iGoogle from 1st November 2013 (16 months away), while the mobile version has until the end of this month (31st July 2012).

According to Google, “With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for something like iGoogle has eroded over time, so we’ll be winding down iGoogle on November 1, 2013, giving you a full 16 months to adjust or easily export your iGoogle data.”

It seems a bit short-sighted to us, as we can understand that there’s not a lot of need for iGoogle on a mobile platform, but on a desktop or laptop computer, iGoogle is still a really useful service used by loads of people.

While all of the data in the main Google apps (Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Tasks) will continue to be available in those online applications, iGoogle-specific apps, such as the To-do list will need to have data exported and saved somewhere else. For iGoogle apps not created by Google the company says, “If you’d like to export your data, you should contact the gadget creator directly.”

Other than that Google recommends going to Google Play on your Android mobile device for replacement mobile apps, while the Chrome Web Store has apps for Google’s browser.

Google’s given plenty of notice of its intentions, but as iGoogle users we’re a little sad to see the service disappear and don’t think that Chrome apps on the desktop cut it in quite the same way.