Google has announced that it is shutting down Google Code, a space for coders to share and store their web projects with other coders and the larger Web.
According to Google, the reason for the shutdown is the fact that it is too often used for malware, spam and other projects that do not benefit the greater Web.
"As developers migrated away from Google Code, a growing share of the remaining projects were spam or abuse," said Google in a blog post. "Lately, the administrative load has consisted almost exclusively of abuse management. After profiling non-abusive activity on Google Code, it has become clear to us that the service simply isn't needed anymore."
Starting today, users will not be able to create new projects using Google Code, and it will close by January 2016. At this point, all users will be able to do is download an archive of their projects.
Thankfully, Google recognizes that some people are using its service for good and will be offering tools for users to migrate their projects from Google Code to alternative service GitHub. Other services, such as SourceForge, have their own project migration tools.
The problem with Google Code is that, not only was it being used to create spam and malware, but also, many are likely to download things from Google.com without thinking twice about the fact that it might be from a third-party developer.
Little frustration at the loss of Google Code has been expressed, with many open-source developers preferring to stick to the likes of GitHub, which was launched in 2008 and quickly spread throughout the open-source tech world. In fact, GitHub is currently the largest code host in the world.
Some suggest that the original launch of Google Code was for rather selfish reasons for Google, specifically, wanting control over as much digital data as possible. GitHub, however, made accessing and altering code easier than ever, making it far more valuable than Google's offerings.
"GitHub and Bitbucket are both looking forward to working with developers moving off of Google Code," continued Google in its post. "They've been great to work with leading up to this announcement, so we'd like to thank those sites for their continued support of the community. There are some great options for people today that didn't exist in 2006, and we look forward to helping you find the one that works for your project."
Image: Yuri Samoilov | Flickr
