In the second week of May, Google will shut down Shoelace, its social networking project, to allow it to focus more on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world.
According to an article on Business Insider, Google has said that it will end Shoelace on 12th May 2020. There is also no mention of whether the service will come back after the coronavirus pandemic.
A statement from Google confirms that Shoelace was an experiment carried out by Area 120. This is a program inside Google that is responsible for running different projects.
Also read:
– Uber’s CTO Steps Down As The Ride-Hailing Company Plans A 20% Layoff
– Elon Musk’s “Free America Now” Tweet Draws Ire From Americans
– Facebook Will Now Allow Creators To Monitise Their Live Streams Among Other New Changes
However, many people have never heard of Shoelace before now. Here are some important things to know about Google’s Shoelace:
— Like all social networks, Shoelace was aimed at connecting people with the same interests.
— The software comes as a mobile app and is tailored to care for hyper-local connections.
— From a list of interests that a user provides, Shoelace will recommend local activities for them.
— Users can also create their own local events with the software.
— In 2019, Google launched Shoelace for an invite-only testing phase on iOS and Android.
— Shoelace was only available in New York City before it was shut down.
This is another of Google’s social networking app that has met untimely death before achieving much. Before Shoelace, there had been Schemer and more recently, Google+.
However, it explained that Shoelace is not a failure. It instead gives reasons surrounding the pandemic in its statement:
“We’re proud of the work that we accomplished and the community that we built, but given the current health crisis, we don’t feel that now is the right time to invest further in this project.”
While Google said that it will totally remove Shoelace from its servers on 12th May, it told users that they could request for the exported version of their data.
For your daily dose of tech, lifestyle and trending content, make sure to follow Plat4om on Twitter @Plat4omLive, on Instagram @Plat4om, on LinkedIn at Plat4om, and on Facebook at Plat4om. You can also email us at info@plat4om.com. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE.
