Google alerts Gmail users of Buzz shutdown

Google has hinted that its Buzz service is on its way out by alerting Gmail users about the same.

"Google Buzz is going away, but your posts are yours to keep" is the notification that shows up on top of Gmail accounts, with directions on how users can port their Google Buzz data.

On October 14, Google announced that it will shut down the highly-controversial social networking product, along with several other services in the coming weeks.

On its official blog, Google announced the death penalty to its code search engine, Buzz, Jaiku which let users send updates to friends, the Google personalised homepage feature iGoogle, and the University Research Program for Google Search.

In about two weeks from now, users will no longer be able to create any new posts on Google Buzz. While the Google Buzz content created/shared by users will remain on their Google Profiles, they also have the option to download their Buzz data via Google Takeout, a Google service that allows users to download a copy of thewir data stored within Google products.

"Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past. We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+," said Google in a blog post.

Google Buzz, a social networking and messaging tool integrated into Gmail service, has been widely criticised for privacy concerns and held back the search giant from expanding its businesses to the social networking space. After Buzz, Google launched Google+ in June, which has been receiving a good response and passed the 40 million user mark, the company's chief executive officer Larry Page said.