Google said it would wind down its Google Health personal health record after about three years of operation. It “didn’t catch on the way we’d hoped,” the company said. Nor did the non-health related Google Power Meter, which will also be unplugged. The company said it will retire Google Health on Jan. 1, 2012. Its (apparently too few) users will have another year after that to download their data. When Google Health launched in May of 2008 , we wrote that personal health records might be a tough sell for many consumers until more medical practices got their own electronic medical record systems up and running. Whatever the reason, the company says

Google Health has had a limited impact: There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven’t found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people. We signed up for Google Health, along with Microsoft HealthVault (which launched in the fall of 2007 and is still kicking) and a bunch of other personal health records for a story, but never quite felt compelled to actually use them. PHR users, please tell us what we’re missing. Photo: Associated Press

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Google Health, R.I.P.