The Google-owned Slide this week confirmed that it will be shutting down operations and retiring a number of its apps, including the recently launched photo-sharing app, Photovine.

Slide founder Max Levchin, who also cofounded PayPal, is leaving Slide and Google. Slide itself will be shut down in the next few months, and remaining employees will be shuffled into Google proper. Meanwhile, the company's apps, including the messaging app Disco and its other photo-sharing app Pool Party, are on track to be sunsetted - a fancy way of saying they're going to be shut down. For Google, a company that has typically made wise and forward-thinking acquisitions, the news comes as a surprise. Google purchased Slide last August for around $200 million, and it ran independently with the hopes that it would buoy Google's flagging position with social apps and services. But that was before Larry Page reclaimed his CEO role at Google, restructured the company, and put an extraordinary emphasis on getting social right. Slide head of product Jared Fliesler is also jumping ship to Square, where he'll join up with his former colleague Keith Rabois.