Google closes Librarian Central

After comments and questions in numerous weblogs over the last few months Google has finally come clean - they're closing the Google Librarian Central blog. They've been thinking about how best to communicate with us, and this apparently is best done by closing the weblog and reverting to a newsletter. Is this one of the first examples of a company dumping Web 2.0 technology in favour of 1.0?

Don't worry though - Google is still committed to the goal of sharing information with us. Stop laughing at the back - it's there in black and white. They're going to be sending out the newsletter 'every few months'. In other words they're making it as vague as possible so we can't easily keep a track on how bad they're being at communicating.

They're apparently very pleased that we've read or commented on their blog in which case why are they closing it? They've learned a lot from us, and the most laughable comment they made is that they want to keep the dialogue open. If that's the case, why close the blog.

I don't believe a word that they're saying. The weblog has become an embarrassment to them and the best way of getting librarians off their back is a) by getting rid of it and b)  making a display of  continuing to talk to us with a newsletter that they'll update when they feel like it. Which will be what - an annual event?