the google graveyard

It's official - nobody can avoid the current economic slowdown. Even Google is "bracing" itself, backing out of unprofitable ventures and reassessing where they are spending. Their most recent move was the closure of their radio advertising service, a 3 year 'trial' program that involved approximately 1600 radio stations.

Although you could point the finger at the recession, this move further illustrates Google's inability to successfully operate offline. The online giant recently shut down their print advertisement department as well, thereby relying almost entirely on online ad revenues. In fact it t is online that they plan to utilize some of the radio technology that has been developed for streaming audio purposes. It should be noted that Google is still attempting to penetrate with television commercials, but I could see that taking awhile to get rolling.

The moral of this story is simple. It's well known that consumers are tightening their spending habits, but if Google and its $22ish billion revenues are doing the same - the recession is here.
*story from Marketing Magazine, see it here.