5 dead apps and services that deserve a second life

Does anyone remember Altavista? It was the first web search engine ever created, but Google made it obsolete. Many other apps and services died due to others offering better features and better design or simply because they didn’t evolve quickly enough. Here, I will pay homage to a few apps and services that might deserve a second life.

5

Vine

It was cool before TikTok

TikTok was almost outed in the U.S., and everyone was looking for TikTok alternatives, but Vine did all that before it was cool. Let’s just say that the first twerking short video was on Vine.

Vine was released in 2012 as a video hosting service where you could upload 6-second videos. It quickly became so popular that four months after its release, it was bought by Twitter for $30 million.

You could share the clips on Facebook and Twitter; in 2015, it already had 200 million active users. Almost inexplicably, a year later, Twitter disabled the uploads and, in 2017, shut down the service. After Elon Musk bought Twitter, he posted a poll asking the users if they wanted to bring back Vine. Although the majority was in favor, nothing happened at that time. Musk repeated the poll in April 2024, when the first TikTok ban discussions started, and the answer from the users was again favorable. Only the future will tell if we will get Vine back or if it will be successful, but it certainly deserves a second chance.

4

Microsoft Zune

A whole ecosystem is gone

Zune was not just a player, a service, or an app; it was all of them combined, a whole ecosystem designed by Microsoft to counter Apple’s iPod world. It started with the first Microsoft Zune portable media player (PMP) in 2006. Some models had 30GB to 120GB hard disks and six models with flash memory.

However, following Apple’s model, Microsoft also launched in 2004 a music service that worked initially as MSN Music. The Redmond giant discontinued MSN Music and announced the Zune service just two years later.

2011, the Zune players were discontinued, but the on-demand music service continued for one more year. Xbox Music and Xbox Video replaced it, and the Zune brand was finally buried.

Many have argued that the Zune brand came too late. In 2006, iPod and iTunes were huge, and Apple’s marketing and product design were a lot stronger. However, I still remember Zune as a cool brand, and although it obviously copied Apple’s model, it was different and special. Is Zune worth a second chance? Why not?

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These technologies deserve a second chance, because everything old becomes new again.

3

ICQ

I seek you!

ICQ was one of the first instant messaging cross-platform apps. It was launched in 1996, but it was revolutionary at that time because it allowed VoIP, and you could hide your phone number. Moreover, you could use it for group chats. It was a combination of Yahoo Messenger and Discord, if you want.

ICQ had a colorful and joyful interface that you just don’t see now in any instant messaging app. You could create channels and attach media files just like on a blog. You could even send and receive audio messages, and the app would automatically make a text transcription. Some radio stations also used it because they could make polls inside their group chats.

The last release of ICQ was version 10.0 in January 2016, and its final update was in May 2022, but at that time, its user base was slim to none. In 2024, ICQ announced on its website that it would discontinue its services.

I still remember ICQ from its early days, and even now, I think it was the only instant messaging app that was both fun and functional. All the other similar apps focus on features and functions, but where is the fun?

2

Google Reader

In the early 20s, Google Reader was the ultimate RSS reader or aggregator. You could use it to gather web feeds from your favorite news portals and read them on a single page. It was developed by an engineer named Chris Wetherell, who called it Java Collect. He actually worked for Google and perfected Google Reader, which was launched in 2005.

With Google Reader, you could download up to 2000 feeds and read them offline, which was amazing. Imagine just reading all the stories from your favorite sources without interruptions. You could make your own selections to enjoy them whenever you wanted.

Google Reader was fairly popular, but in 2013, Google had a lot of products to develop and decided to discontinue the service to focus on other things. That was the official motive, doubled by a slight usage decline. Many have questioned Google’s decision at that time, and there was even a petition to keep it alive, but the search giant still closed it down. Let’s face it: Google Reader was a Javascript browser with no ads, but now, it could be made much more entertaining and profitable.

Many apps and services have been killed over the years, but in my opinion, the ones I picked above deserve a second chance.

1

MySpace

The birth of social networking

MySpace was the first social networking service in the U.S., released in 2003. Its initial hype was tremendous. At first, it was designed as a place for artists and bands to promote themselves, but soon, everyone had a Myspace, whether they were into music or not. Let’s say that it was Facebook’s grandfather. I built a page for my band at that time, and we uploaded our songs there because it was a great greeting card.

It was also a great portal to get music and share your passion for certain artists. According to its Wikipedia page, in June 2014, MySpace hosted 14.2 million artists and over 53 million songs.

Since then, MySpace has changed a lot and lost its old spark, but it is still there. However, no one has published any new articles on the page since 2022, and the general consensus is that MySpace is dead.

Usually, these kinds of services are taken down by better ones. We could argue that nowadays, musicians go to Soundcloud or Last.fm, but they can’t truly compare them to MySpace. I really believe that the old MySpace formula could be revived with a more modern approach.

Will we see any of these apps revived?

Many apps and services have been killed over the years, but in my opinion, the ones I picked above deserve a second chance. Even though these exact names and brands will probably remain history, the concepts behind them still live on. They only need a boost to reflect the needs of the users today.