Some of you may be hearing this name for the first time – Popfly. Yes it is one of those unheard services provided by Microsoft. Popfly was introduced in October 2007, solely to encourage and let users create Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets and Windows Live Gadgets. Its best part was that it helped non-programmers to create and share gadgets, content, feeds and webpages. But now its time has come and it is going down. When I visited Popfly’s official website, the ‘dark truth’ displayed on its homepage.

In Popfly blog, the company official John Montgomery confirmed that on August 24, 2009, the Popfly service will be discontinued including users’ access to the service. Moreover, all the sites, references and resources will be taken down. Another Microsoft spokesperson added that the tool was being discontinued because of the economic downturn has caused Microsoft to re-evaluate their priorities. However, to continue web application development, Microsoft is now advising Popfly users to switch to Microsoft Web Platform Installer.