Google is killing off its Slide team and shutting down most of the mobile apps that the team created in order to focus more on Google+.
Google purchased Slide last year for about $200 million and the team was thought to give the search giant a much-needed boost in the social side. Since then, Larry Page has taken over as CEO and has implemented a major reorganization. The Slide team had been operating independently and apparently didn’t have a real role in Page’s Google. Slide’s former CEO, Max Levchin, will be leaving the company.
I can’t say I’m really surprised, as Google is all-in with Google+ and Page is really focusing the company’s efforts on fewer products – “more wood behind fewer arrows.” Slide created apps like Pool Party and the just-released Photovine and these duplicated features that are in the Google+ apps. In fact, the Photovine app didn’t even work with Android.
The Slide team will be moving to other parts of Google and let’s hope some of these guys and gals get the chance to do something that has the full support of Google. As much as I didn’t like how Photovine wasn’t compatible with Android, it had a stunning user interface and was really nice to use.
[Via TechCrunch]