Google Inc. (GOOG), owner of the most popular search engine, has found success with the Gmail mail service and the Google+ social network but some of the new services it has been offering failed to gain ground. Now it is eliminating the place for communicating and testing crazy and wild ideas for the next big thing on the Internet.

Google is winding down Google Labs, the site where users explore prototypes to aid development of new projects.

"Last week we explained that we're prioritizing our product efforts. As part of that process, we've decided to wind down Google Labs. While we've learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we're to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead," said Bill Coughran, SVP for Research and Systems Infrastructure, in Google's official blog site.

"In many cases, this will mean ending Labs experiments - in others we'll incorporate Labs products and technologies into different product areas. And many of the Labs products that are Android apps today will continue to be available on Android Market."

"We'll continue to push speed and innovation-the driving forces behind Google Labs-across all our products, as the early launch of the Google+ field trial last month showed," Coughran said.

Bloomberg News reports that Google Co-founder and CEO Larry Page is trying to make product development more efficient to tap opportunities in the mobile, social and e-commerce markets. For the past month, Page, who just took over as CEO in April, introduced a social network to rival Facebook but retired health information manager Google Health and energy use tracker Google PowerMeter.

PC World notes says the end of Google Labs is bound to raise eyebrows in the industry, considering that Google has always touted its policy to encourage innovation among employees and to release new products early and refine them iteratively in the public eye.

An update to the post said that Google doesn't have any plans to change in-product experimentation channels like Gmail Labs or Maps Labs. "We'll continue to experiment with new features in each of our products," he said.

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