Google iscelebrating its 25th anniversary today. In these 25 years, the company has released numerous products and services, some of which you likely use daily, like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Search, and Android. But not everything the company launches becomes a huge hit. Some productsare quickly discontinued after launch, while others live on but hardly get any limelight. And no, I am not talking about Google Allo, Wave, or Buzz. These offerings are a lot more obscure than them. On Google’s 25th birthday, below is a look at 5 unknown or all but forgotten Google products or services you never heard of or completely forgot about.
1. Nexus Q
Announced atGoogle I/O in June 2012, the Nexus Q was a streaming media player meant to invade your living room. It is likely the most popular Google product on this list. Unfortunately, though, the Q never saw the light of day as Google canceled its launch a month after its official announcement.
The Nexus Q had promise: it enabled you to stream music from Google Music to the sound system in your living room. The device had a stunning and sleek design, which further helped it to stand out. And if you shared the Q with your friends, they could join in on the action by adding tunes from their Google Music library and rearranging the playlist. But at $300, the Nexus Q offered too little for too much.
Google probably realized its mistake, so itcanceled the Nexus Q’s launcheven before it went on sale. On the bright side, this streaming box from Google likely paved the way for Chromecast and the Cast protocol, which has changed how we share media among our devices.
2. Project Sunroof
If you are in the US, you likely know about Tesla’s Solar Roof, which hogs all the media limelight. To aid in installing solar panels in your home, Tesla offers asolar power calculatorfrom where you can find out how much installation will cost and how much money you can save by switching to solar energy. But do you know Google offers a similar tool in the US and Puerto Rico?
Project Sunroofis a solar savings estimator that can recommend the number of solar panels you need, compare the various loan, lease, and purchase options, and the money you can save. Enter your address, and Project Sunroof uses Google Maps to find your house’s roof.
The tool then ascertains how many hours of usable sunlight the panels will get yearly, whether your roof is suitable for solar panel installation, and more.Project Sunroof is not new: it has been around since 2015 and was developed by Google engineer Carl Elkin. If you are considering installing solar panels in your home, definitely check out this handy tool from Google.
3. Google Lively
Do you know Google launched its take on Metaverse 15 years ago? The company introduced Lively to bring a “3D virtual experience” to the web. The project originated as a part of a 20% project by Niniane Wang, an Engineering Manager at Google, in July 2008. That’s a few months even before Android 1.0 was released on September 23 of the same year.
Blogs and websites could embed a Lively room, enabling visitors to hang out in their avatar form and interact with others with animated actions, like a handshake or hug. In many ways, Lively was probably ahead of its time, but it was held back by the technology of its time and offered a clunky experience. No wonder Google permanently shut down the service five months later, on July 11, 2025, due to its lack of popularity.
Ars Technica’s hands-on with Google Lively from 2008 is still live, so you can go through it to get an idea of what the service was all about.
4. Google Clips
How does a small camera that can automatically record “unique perspectives” sound? Pointless? That’s what theGoogle Clipswas about. Given the small camera hardly had any use case, don’t be surprised if you never heard of it or forgot about its existence.
Announced in 2017 at the Made by Google event, Google Clips had a GoPro-like compact body and used MomentIQ to capture motion photos of familiar faces and pets. The camera featured a 120-degree FoV, weighed just 60.5g, had 16GB of inbuilt storage, and offered 3 hours of battery life. But it was worse than a dedicated action camera in every possible way. Video recording was limited to 15fps, water resistance was missing, and the lack of a mic meant no audio was captured. All this for $249.
Google tried improving Clips with software updates to add features likehigher resolution still image capture,timelapse, and better facial recognition. However, these features could not add value to a device that probably should have never launched. Unsurprisingly,Clips was pulled from the Google Storetwo years after its debut, and we never saw its successor.
5. Exploring Outer Space in Google Maps
Google Maps is among thebest Android appsto have on your phone. Using the mapping service, you can explore the world from the comfort of your couch. But did you know that Google Maps lets you traverse the outer space as well?
Yep, that’s the view from the International Space Station!
With the mapping service, you can explore the surface of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and other planets and moons that are a part of our solar system. As if that’s not enough, you can even get an inside view of the International Space Station to know how astronauts spend their time in outer space.
Given Google Maps' popularity, you must wonder why its ability to traverse outer space is not heavily advertised. That’s likely because these options are limited to Google Maps on the web. Your outer space exploring activities cannot be done on mobile. Open up Google Maps on your PC’s browser, zoom out as much as possible, and click the Layers option in the bottom left corner to start exploring outer space.
Here’s to the next 25 years of obscure Google products
Given how Google plays an integral part of the Internet, it’s surprising that it has had duds and obscure services like Lively and Clips. But then again 25 years is a long time, and consumer preference keeps changing. While Google might be heavily pushing its Nest security cameras and smart displays as the hottest things around, they might be all but forgotten in the next decade.Google’s next 25 yearscould see it heavily pushing AI and focusing more on its successful hardware efforts, like the Pixel lineup.
