Google will shut down its Shoelace social network on May 12

The experimental social network Shoelace will be shut down on May 12, Engadget reports. Google officially announced the news on the home page of the service and included a FAQ document with a more detailed explanation. It appears that the timing just wasn't right for Shoelace to take off properly. The network was meant to help people meet in real life and organize local events.

"We're proud of the work that we accomplished and the community that we built, but given the current health crisis, we don't feel that now is the right time to invest further in this project," writes Google in the document.

There are no plans for the service to be rebooted in the future, and all accounts and data associated with Shoelace will be deleted after May 12. Users can download a copy of their data by filling out this form, though.

Shoelace was a brainchild of Area 120 - Google's skunkworks department, where small development teams build novel products in an entrepreneurial environment. Google has a long history of scrapping projects. You can check the virtual graveyard on killedbygoogle.com, but among the most notable examples are services like Picasa, Google Wave, Google+, Inbox by Gmail, and many, many more.