Google is becoming a serial killer of Google services.
Following the recent announced terminations of Google Reader and Google Latitude, the Internet search giant confirms that Alfred, the local recommendations app, will be similarly shuttered on July 19th.
Google famously gained Alfred in 2011 through the company’s acquisition of The Clever Sense.
“This is a turn of events from Google’s original plan to leave Alfred open ‘for the foreseeable future,’ as the company told us back at the time of the acquisition,” Tech Crunch reported Friday.
Apart from the fact that Google has a track record for closing down apps after buying them — Wavii, Meebo, Jaiku, Slide, and Aardvark are but a few examples — the company has been gradually consolidating more features in fewer products. In this case, it’s been adding more recommendation features into both its Maps app as well as Google+.
So far, Google has been unusually quiet on plans to close Alfred. In fact, we only learned of the pending closure because the news was posted in a notification in the app itself.
