Google withdraws notifier service for Calendar and Gmail events for the desktop
18 Jan 2014
Google has quietly withdrawn its notifier service for Calendar and Gmail events for the desktop. The feature had been in service for about 10 years before the internet search company decided to retire it.
According to the verge.com, the free notifier app does not have support of the internet giant any longer. The blame lies partly in the fact that in the age of smartphones, smart web browsers and even smarter operating systems, a notifier of the kind was redundant.
The notifier tool could check for new mails and calendar events every two odd minutes and inform users of the messages. The free notifier tool also served as an intermediary to users who back then would not use native calendar or mail clients, and left the heavy work for the browser to do.
Google ended up replicating many of the notifier's features into its products including Chrome and Google Talk, though and that was what the company wanted users to do now too.
When one attempts installation of the notifier app now, Google asks for installation of Google Chrome, since the browser comes with built in notifications system and many of Google's most important productivity tools.
The internet search company has told users on its support page that the notifier was now no longer supported and has listed down steps for users to follow and uninstall the feature from Windows as also from Mac.
The move comes amid rising popularity and demand of smartphones, web browsers and operating systems that instantly alert users to a newly received mail and more.
According to Verge, Google had been duplicating the core features of the tool inside other software like Google Talk.
For installing the app, users would now have to download Google Chrome, which comes with a built-in desk notifier and which can connect to the company's productivity app.
