The day of the long knives at Google (NSDQ: GOOG) when it comes to products. In a burst of blog posts late Wednesday, the company announced the closure or impending closing of a batch of products, some more widely available than others: Google Notebook, Dodgeball, Google Catalog Search, microblogging servie Jaiku, and the Google Mashup Editor. You could call it thinning the herd as Google looks for ways to cut back ever so slightly on engineering and to divert resources to projects that may have a chance or making money or could be more powerful when it comes to the same functions. Google is also halting uploads to Google Video, directing users instead to YouTube and Picasa. Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has details. A couple of notes:

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—Invite-only Jaiku, acquired by Google in October 2007, will make its code available to all and will continue to be supported by volunteers.

—Mobile social net service Dodgeball was acquired by Google in 2005; the founders left in frustration in early 2007, going public with their feelings that they lacked engineering support. They might as well have announced that it was closed back then.

—Video uploads will be discontinued in a few months but the site will continue to host the videos. The emphasis on video search grows even stronger.