Bought By AOL Alongside Patch, Going Will Soon Be Gone

Back in June of 2009, then-new CEO Tim Armstrong made two acquisitions to move AOL into the local space: Patch and Going. While the verdict is still very much out on Patch, it’s clear that AOL is at least committed to it. Going? Not so much.

Going will be “going away” (they made the joke, not me) on May 1, 2011. The reason? “AOL’s refocusing”, the team explains in an email sent to users today.

We’ve previously covered Going a number of times over the years. More recently, AOL had turned it into a new-style check-in service that focused on events (odd given that earlier today, Facebook unveiled an app update that does the same basic thing). At the time, Foursquare was starting to get some buzz, but it was far from clear who the winner in the space would be. We can definitely say now that it will not be Going.

You’ll be able to grab you information off of Going before the May deadline. After that, going.com will apparently be part of both Moviefone and Patch somehow.

Below, find the email sent out:

First off, we’d like to thank you and the Going community for your support and your feedback over the years. With your contributions we built a very special site that has helped make the city a place to live in to the fullest and has gotten the word out about thousands of great local happenings, artists, and places. We can’t thank you enough!

As part of AOL’s refocusing, Going will be going away as of Sunday, May 1st, 2011.

We wanted to give you as much notice as possible so that you can grab anything you’ve contributed ahead of that date. Please save out any of your messages, events, photos, profile information and other personal content you’d like before May 1st.

After that date, Going.com will have a new home in Moviefone and Patch which have movie and event listings at a national level.

Hopefully that will ease the transition and help you continue to discover great things to do around town!

Please note that the Going mobile site and iPhone and Facebook applications will be discontinued as well.

Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions, and thanks again.

Sincerely, Roy Rodenstein, Going co-Founder, and the Going Team