Google Video Swept Out in Spring Cleaning

Looks like Google is doing a little spring cleaning and the latest on flop service to be swept under the rug is Google Video.

The Mountain View-based search behemoth announced via e-mail on Friday that it will be switching off its much forgotten video service on April 29. Users have until May 13 to download their videos before they are removed permanently.

The e-mail quickly cuts to the chase and suggests that people use Google's slightly more popular video service: YouTube.

"We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you haven't done so already," a Google representative said in the e-mail. "YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner."

Google Video lived a tough existence. It debuted in early 2005 as a video search engine, but quickly found itself overshadowed by an independent YouTube in 2006. To make things worse, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in a stock transaction a few months later.

Can't say we didn't see this one coming, Google appeared to be calling it quits with the service in 2009 when it stopped allowing users to upload videos.

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