Lost users to competition

MySpace A place for friends 2003–now Social Networks RealPlayer Buffering… buffering… 1995–now Media Players BS.Player Still shipping, about one release every three years 2000–now Media Players Open Diary Invented the comment, in 1998 1998–2026 Blogging & Web Publishing Anthem BioWare's Iron Man shooter, abandoned in 2021 and unplugged in 2026 2019–2026 Games Typepad Where the BBC and Time blogged, deleted after 22 years 2003–2025 Blogging & Web Publishing MultiVersus Batman vs Bugs Bunny: 20 million players, then two shutdowns 2022–2025 Games Skype The app that made calling the world free 2003–2025 Messengers Google Jamboard Google's $5,000 whiteboard, retired to make room for Figma and Miro 2017–2024 Gadgets & Hardware Veoh The video site that beat Universal in court, went bankrupt two months later, and then took fourteen more years to actually die 2005–2024 Video & Streaming Concord Sony's $40 hero shooter, online for fourteen days 2024–2024 Games ICQ The messenger that gave you a number 1996–2024 Messengers Wii U 13.5 million sold, and the ideas all survived it 2012–2024 Consoles & Handhelds Google Glass The face computer the public rejected 2013–2023 VR & AR Knockout City Dodgeball as a live-service game: five million players, then a studio too small to keep it alive 2021–2023 Games Babylon's Fall PlatinumGames' live-service game, down to one player on Steam within months 2022–2023 Games Google Stadia The future of gaming, cancelled 2019–2023 Game Platforms & Services Windows RT Windows for ARM tablets that could not run Windows programs 2012–2023 Operating Systems Atom Killed by an editor built on the framework it invented 2014–2022 Developer Tools BlackBerry OS The keyboard that ran the world 1999–2022 Operating Systems Popcorn Time Piracy with a Netflix interface, killed twice, faded once 2014–2022 Video & Streaming BlackBerry 10 The reboot that arrived in 2013 and was switched off in 2022 2013–2022 Operating Systems BlackBerry PlayBook RIM's seven-inch tablet, shipped without email, written down by half a billion, switched off in 2022 2011–2022 Phones & Tablets Twitter Fleets Twitter's disappearing posts, built to make quiet users braver, dead in under nine months 2020–2021 Social Networks Yahoo Answers The internet's strangest Q&A community 2005–2021 Reference & Learning Yahoo Groups Where the internet organised itself 2001–2020 Email & Groups Quibi $1.75 billion, six months, gone 2020–2020 Video & Streaming Mixer The $100 million assault on Twitch 2016–2020 Video & Streaming Windows Phone The tiles nobody wrote apps for 2010–2019 Operating Systems Google Daydream Google's soft-fabric VR headset for Pixels, dropped after three years 2016–2019 VR & AR Ouya The $99 console Kickstarter wanted to exist 2013–2019 Consoles & Handhelds BlackBerry Messenger BBM: PINs, the D and the R, the messenger that made the BlackBerry, licensed to an Indonesian company and closed in 2019 2005–2019 Messengers YouTube Gaming YouTube's Twitch rival, a separate app and site for game video, merged back into YouTube after four years 2015–2019 Video & Streaming Google+ The social network everyone was signed up to and nobody used 2011–2019 Social Networks Google Allo Google's WhatsApp that wasn't 2016–2019 Messengers PlayStation Vita The best handheld nobody supported 2011–2019 Consoles & Handhelds HipChat The team chat that was there before Slack, bought by Atlassian, renamed Stride, and then sold to Slack to be switched off 2010–2019 Messengers WildStar The cartoon sci-fi MMO built for hardcore raiders, gone in four years 2014–2018 Games Path The social network with a 50-friend limit, big in Indonesia, closed by Kakao 2010–2018 Social Networks LawBreakers Cliff Bleszinski's gravity-defying shooter, launched into Overwatch's shadow 2017–2018 Games Go90 Verizon's free mobile video app for teenagers, over a billion dollars spent, closed after 34 months 2015–2018 Video & Streaming Yahoo Messenger Booted from the chat room one last time 1998–2018 Messengers StumbleUpon The serendipity button 2002–2018 Web Technologies & Tools Miitomo Nintendo's first smartphone app: a Mii that asked you questions and told your friends the answers, switched off two years later 2016–2018 Mobile Apps Groove Music Microsoft's music service after Zune, renamed twice and handed to Spotify 2012–2017 Music Streaming AIM Away messages and slammed doors 1997–2017 Messengers CodePlex Microsoft's open source home, closed because GitHub won 2006–2017 Developer Tools LoveFilm Europe's Netflix by post: DVDs in red envelopes, bought by Amazon and closed disc by disc 2002–2017 E-commerce & Retail Kinect "You are the controller": the fastest-selling gadget of 2010, unplugged by 2017 2010–2017 Gadgets & Hardware Shareaza The client whose own name was stolen 2002–2017 File Sharing Delicious The web's shared memory 2003–2017 Web Technologies & Tools Yik Yak Anonymous, local, and impossible to moderate 2013–2017 Social Networks Google Spaces Google's small-group sharing app that lived for eleven months, which was short even for Google 2016–2017 Messengers Photosynth Microsoft Live Labs' 3D photo stitcher, a jaw-dropping demo in 2006, a website from 2008, switched off in February 2017 2006–2017 Photo Sharing Firefox OS The web as an operating system, aimed at $25 phones 2013–2016 Operating Systems iMesh Settled, went legal, outlived everyone, left without a word 1999–2016 File Sharing Google Code Google's free host for open source projects, killed by GitHub and by the spammers who moved in when everyone else left 2006–2016 Developer Tools Yahoo Screen Yahoo's video hub, home of the SNL archive, Community season six and a $42 million write-down, closed in January 2016 2011–2016 Video & Streaming Zune Microsoft's answer to the iPod, five years late 2006–2015 Gadgets & Hardware Amazon Fire Phone Amazon's 3D phone, $199 in July, 99 cents by September, $170 million written off by October 2014–2015 Phones & Tablets Friendster The social network that came first 2002–2015 Social Networks Xfire The gamer's buddy list 2004–2015 Game Platforms & Services Secret Anonymous confessions from your own contacts, worth $100 million for about a year 2014–2015 Mobile Apps PlayStation Home Sony's empty metaverse, fifteen years early 2008–2015 Game Platforms & Services Orkut Brazil's living room, built in a 20% project 2004–2014 Social Networks Technorati The search engine that ranked the blogosphere, whose Authority score every blogger checked daily, quietly switched off in 2014 when the conversation moved to Twitter 2002–2014 Search Engines & Directories Blockbuster Turned down Netflix for $50 million, and one store survives 1985–2014 E-commerce & Retail Winamp It really whips the llama's ass 1997–2013 Media Players Bebo The $850 million write-off 2005–2013 Social Networks AltaVista Search, before Google 1995–2013 Search Engines & Directories Color Forty-one million dollars before launch, an app nobody understood, and a shutdown within two years: the cautionary tale of the 2011 app boom 2011–2012 Mobile Apps iTunes Ping Apple built a social network inside iTunes, launched it without Facebook and without the songs, and closed it after two years of silence 2010–2012 Social Networks Google Notebook Clip text and links from the web into online notebooks, from a 2006 browser extension to a 2012 export into Docs 2006–2012 Online Services Digg The front page of the web, until v4 2004–2012 Social Networks Xperia Play The PlayStation phone: a slide-out gamepad on an Android handset, one model, one year, no Android 4.0 2011–2012 Phones & Tablets Knol Google's signed, ad-sharing answer to Wikipedia, opened in 2008 and closed in 2012 2008–2012 Reference & Learning Google Wave Email, reinvented too hard 2009–2012 Web Technologies & Tools Google Health Google tried to be the place you kept your medical records, found that almost nobody wanted one, and closed it in 2012 2008–2012 Online Services Star Wars Galaxies The Star Wars MMO its players never forgave for the New Game Enhancements 2003–2011 Games Google Sidewiki A comment box Google bolted onto every website in the world, whether the owner wanted it or not 2009–2011 Online Services Windows Live Spaces 30 million blogs, and Microsoft expected 1% to move 2004–2011 Blogging & Web Publishing Microsoft Kin Dead in 48 days 2010–2011 Phones & Tablets Bloglines The RSS reader that taught the web to subscribe, bought by Ask Jeeves in 2005 and switched off in 2010 after Google Reader took its readers 2003–2010 Web Technologies & Tools Vox Closed at 3:20 in the afternoon, and its name sold on 2006–2010 Blogging & Web Publishing N-Gage Nokia's taco phone: a Symbian handset that was also a games console, sold sideways, then a games service that closed in 2010 2003–2010 Consoles & Handhelds Vox Six Apart's friendly blog for people who did not want to blog in public, closed four years later and its address sold to a media company 2006–2010 Blogging & Web Publishing Joost The Skype founders' peer-to-peer television, the most hyped video start-up of 2007, sold for parts in 2009 2007–2009 Video & Streaming Encarta The encyclopedia on a CD, killed by a website 1993–2009 Reference & Learning GeoCities Your neighborhood on the early web 1994–2009 Blogging & Web Publishing Yahoo! 360° Left in beta for four years, then quietly ended 2005–2009 Blogging & Web Publishing Microsoft Money Microsoft's personal finance program, eighteen years against Quicken, ended when the banks went online 1991–2009 Desktop Software Google Lively Google's cartoon chat rooms with avatars, launched in July 2008 and switched off on New Year's Eve the same year 2008–2008 Online Services HD DVD Toshiba's high-definition disc, first to market and dead within two years 2006–2008 Storage & Media Formats Netscape Navigator The browser that opened the web 1994–2008 Web Browsers Google Answers Pay a researcher $2 to $200 for an answer: Google's first paid product, closed in 2006 as Yahoo Answers took off 2002–2006 Reference & Learning WonderSwan Gunpei Yokoi's last handheld, Bandai's Japan-only Game Boy rival with Final Fantasy remakes and a 30-hour battery 1999–2003 Consoles & Handhelds Microsoft Comic Chat The IRC client that drew your conversation as a comic strip, shipped with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996 and open-sourced thirty years later 1996–2001 Messengers Sega Dreamcast The console that killed its own company 1998–2001 Consoles & Handhelds Sega Saturn Sega's 32-bit console, launched early by surprise, undercut by PlayStation and abandoned in America after three years 1994–2000 Consoles & Handhelds Satellaview Nintendo's satellite modem for the Super Famicom, live-broadcast Zelda and F-Zero from a Tokyo radio station, off air in 2000 1995–2000 Game Platforms & Services NCSA Mosaic Put the pictures in the page, and the web took off 1993–1997 Web Browsers Game Gear Sega's colour handheld, better than the Game Boy on paper and out of batteries in three hours 1990–1997 Consoles & Handhelds Virtual Boy Nintendo's red 3D headset, on sale for about a year 1995–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Atari Jaguar "Do the math": Atari's 64-bit console, the last one it ever made, dead within three years 1993–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Sega CD The CD-ROM drive that bolted onto the Genesis, full-motion video, Night Trap and 2.24 million sold 1991–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Microsoft Bob A cartoon house instead of a desktop, sold for one year in 1995 1995–1996 Desktop Software 3DO Interactive Multiplayer Trip Hawkins' $699 licensed console, built by Panasonic and Goldstar, out of the hardware business within three years 1993–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Atari Lynx The first colour handheld, designed at Epyx and sold by Atari, beaten by a monochrome Game Boy 1989–1995 Consoles & Handhelds