Google finally pulls the plug on Buzz amid 'fall sweep'

Before there was Google+ there was Google Buzz, the company's big effort to stake a claim in the social networking space. That, of course, didn't exactly work out for the search giant, and it even managed to spark some lawsuits and attract the eye of the FTC. Now Google has finally swept it under the rug in a bit of fall cleaning, stating in a blog post today that Google Buzz and the Buzz API will be shut down "in a few weeks," and that it will now focus solely on Google+ instead. Also getting the axe is Jaiku, a social networking service that Google acquired in 2007, as well some of the social features on iGoogle, and the company's Code Search service, which will officially be shut down along with its API on January 15th of next year. And, if that wasn't enough, Google also confirmed that today's the day that the Google Labs site will be shut down (its demise was announced this summer).