Given the questionable state of the economy, it’s only natural for businesses to “cut back” on unneeded services and whatnot to save a little money. Even a powerhouse like Google is running into a few “issues” that they need to take care of. The online megastar has announced the discontinuation of several services, including Google Video, Google Catalog Search, and a few invite-only beta tests. In many cases, the now defunct services were considered to be “relics,” a specialist in a field already dominated by another Google service. As with all Google related shutdowns, the teams involved are giving users a few weeks to “finish up” before pulling the plug for good.

In other news, Adobe has put a stop to the practice of in-PDF advertising. Originally designed to add contextual ads to an otherwise ad-free environment, this Adobe/Yahoo co-production wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire. Sources close to Adobe say that the service was scrapped due to a combination of economical and practical matters. Advertisements will no longer be accepted after today, but will continue to run until March 31st. Adobe suggests reloading any affected file after the March 31st cutoff date, as the advertising framework could cause some files to malfunction slightly.

Despite what the previous two articles might have inferred, not everyone is in the process of cutting back. The folks over at Wikipedia have purchased more servers and storage solutions in preparation for the 2009 calendar. “Video file sizes are quickly reaching the dozens and hundreds of megabytes, and the proliferation of high-megapixel cameras means even small photos can take up a few megabytes,” Wikimedia CTO Brion Vibber told tech blog Network World. “The amount of storage actually being used is about 5 [terabytes], but that will grow quickly.” The move comes weeks after the organization’s year-end charity drive, which netted the self-described “non-profit charity” $6 million in much needed funds. According to reports, the new servers will support the site’s fast growing “multimedia” section, which features everything from classical compositions to sports highlights to public-domain documentaries.

Next, WordPress is the king of the blogging services, according to Royal Pingdom. In a poll of the web’s 100 most popular bloggers, 27 say that WordPress is the blogging platform of choice. Despite being the top platform, WordPress only comes in second in the “services” category. That award goes to Typepad, which clocks in with sixteen users. Other services and platforms making the cut include Blogsmith (sixteen users), Movable Type (twelve users), and Gawker (eight users).

And to finish out the week, MySpace is thinking about joining the world of webmail. According to a few “informants” close to the situation, the social networking giant will give every one of their 125 million users a free @myspace.com email address to go along with their accounts. By working things in this fashion, MySpace will instantly become the third largest provider of webmail, behind Yahoo and Hotmail. At press time, MySpace is neither confirming nor denying the report.