Google has shut down Slide, the startup it acquired last year, and will be ending several of its projects including the newly launched Photovine.
The death of Photovine is surprising because the photo-sharing application was released to iOS in July and to Android only last week. While some of Slide's applications such as the group-messaging Disco were criticized as mediocre, Photovine seemed as if it had legs. Photovine, like all of Slide's apps, will be ended in the next few months. Users are advised to download their photos or import them to a Picasa account, according a now-removed Slide blog post.
Google bought Slide and its various social apps in August 2010 for $200 million and it was run as an independent unit out of San Francisco, AllThingsD reported. Its leader, PayPal founder Max Levchin, will also be leaving Google. “Max has decided to leave Slide and Google to pursue other opportunities, and we wish him the best. Most of the team from Slide will remain at Google to work on other opportunities," Google said in a statement.
The apps created by Slide will be gradually phased out over the next few months and some of the staff are expected to be shuffled around Google properties like YouTube. One Slide app will stay, according to TechCrunch, called Prizes.org where users solve problems for -- you guessed it! -- prizes.
What's interesting here is that Slide had a $500 million valuation in 2008, was bought for $200 million in 2010 and now is being written off as an almost complete loss by Google in 2011. That's the tech bubble in action.
