As with anything in life, there is a beginning and there is an end. It’s the nature of the beast.

Since Google Places launched the ‘Tags’ feature in 2010, I’ve been using it on a regular basis, for our company and for clients, and was surprised to receive an email stating that it’s being retired. The email is included below:

Dear Google Places user,
At Google, we’re always working to innovate and improve ways for small businesses to get online and reach more customers. At times, though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies we expect will yield the most benefit to users and businesses like you in the long run.
In that spirit, we are retiring Google Tags for all users on April 29, 2011. No action is required on your part, and your Places account and listing will continue to work as usual. Effective today, no new tags can be created, but all active tags will keep running to the end of April for free.
In your Places account, you’ll be able to see billing history until July 31st. If your tag is active, performance data will be available from now until May 31st. Historical performance data of inactive tags will be available in your dashboard starting May 2nd until May 31st.
You can visit our blog post and our Help Center for more information. There are still a number of options for you to reach more customers online, including our latest product for local businesses, Google Boost. Through the month of May, we are offering Tags customers like you $100 to try out Google Boost. Call 877-503-0841 Monday to Friday 8am-6pm to redeem your credit.
Thank you for trying Google Tags.
Sincerely,
The Google Places Team

Farewell Tags, we’ll miss you.

Aaron Schoenberger
The Brainchild Group