Google to shut down Pinterest rival 'Keen,' an Area 120 project

Another Google project is biting the dust this month. Launched in early-2020 as a part of Google Area 120 project, Keen had been seen to take on Pinterest – a popular image sharing platform – with machine learning recommendations.

Keen, a project by Google’s Area 120, had been preprogrammed to replicate its features from Pinterest in terms of suggestion. Keen did that using Machine Learning. Keen allows users to maintain a collection of something they are interested in, like gardening or baking. It helped them to organise content. Google used its Search algorithms and Machine Learning to provide suggestions based on relevant content as time went on and the users developed their keens. Unfortunately, the project will end this month.

Despite its novel nature, Keen did not get any significant response from the market with its last major update being in December 2021. The platform users should save and back up their Keen data before March 24.

Users have started receiving notifications urging them to download their Keen data which includes curated links, uploaded pictures, and text posts through a link provided on staykeen.com. After the shutdown, all keens will permanently vanish.

The decision to shut down Keen is consistent with Google’s overall reorganisation strategy, even though they realise its contribution towards recommendation systems that reflect individuals’ everyday preferences. In January 2023, Google closed several Area 120 projects as part of organisational changes that resulted in layoffs across the company.

Google operated Keen as the test bed for their content curation algorithm based on Machine Learning. Although a good concept, Keen couldn’t measure up to established players in the area of content curation.