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the Free CMSWire NewsletterIt was a heavy week in G world this time around. We sniffled and waved a sad goodbye to Labs, welcomed a URL shortener, a virtual ton of Google+ visitors, new Webmaster features, and saw the first signs of Google letting up on the whole Oracle lawsuit
Google Kills Labs in Favor of "Extraordinary Opportunities"
It was a sad week for the adventurous, as the great Google announced the closing of its Labs department — birthing place of the likes of Reader and Public Data Explorer — in an effort to focus more on its core products.
Since the announcement, a handful of Google's representatives have reported that Gmail Labs, Calendar Labs and other Labs will not be getting axed— just the general experimental playground found at googlelabs.com. What this means for now is that some projects and experiments will be terminated immediately, while others will be folded into other Google product areas.
While there's no telling which projects will ultimately bite the bullet, it's probably safe to assume it will be those that have received little to no attention since their release. For instance, the Internet giant recently killed off Google Health, a personal health records service, as well as Google PowerMeter, a service for monitoring Web-based home energy use.
Understandably, the news hasn't been met by consumers without a tinge of sadness. As Stacey Higginbotham of GigaOm noted, many Googlers are frustrated with the lack of information (which features we’ll lose and when). "If I knew what was going away, and when, I could start researching for alternatives. Or maybe a kindly startup could volunteer to take the feature out of Google’s hands and support it," she wrote.
Meanwhile, others support the giant's decision to reduce expectations for non-stop innovation and magicked-up virtual spaces. Doing so will free up essential time for focusing attention on core products, or heavy new comers like Google+.
Now Make Multiple Phone Calls Using Gmail
Google is promoting more conversation this week with the release of a multiple calls feature in Gmail. Now users can run their mouths on more than one phone call at a time.
If you’re in a call and need to make a second one, your first call will be put on hold while you speak on the second. You can switch between calls by pressing the “Resume” button, which will automatically put the previous call on hold:
According to Google, the new feature works across all call types (voice, video, and phone); the only restriction is that a maximum of two outgoing calls to physical phones can be placed at once. You can check the Internet giant's official post here.
Google Shortcuts to Products and Services with G.Co
Like Twitter (t.co) and the webpage formerly known as Overstock.com (o.co), Google has turned to Columbia for a shortened address. The new G.co will direct web surfers to official Google products and services like Gmail, Documents and Photos.
"The shorter a URL, the easier it is to share and remember. The downside is, you often can't tell what website you're going to be redirected to. We'll only use g.co to send you to webpages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts," explained Google in an official blog post. "That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service."
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