I was surprised to read that Google has decided to cancel its data hosting service, nee Palimpsest. The name Palimpsest came from the book, Archimedes Palimpsest. To read more on the project which recently restored Archimedes Palimpset click here.

Google was originally planning to host Terabytes of data, including astronomical and large governmental data sets. Many bloggers had been hailing Google’s service as the start of a new era of transparency for the USA.

The decision to cancel Google’s Palimpset came just a week ago. The sharp downturn in the economy played a key role. Google’s stock fell from an all-time high of about $700 a year ago to around $300 today. This caused Google to sharply curtail “experimental” programs that have no guaranteed revenues.

-Lyndie Chiou