I just found out today that the HELLO instant messenger service operated by Picasa (now owned by Google) will be shutting down on May 15th, 2008 June 11th 2008.

Unfortunately, I only found this out today (Monday, May 12th, 2008) by accident. I didn’t receive any email notice from the HELLO team about the service shutting down. Clicking any of the help links in the software brings you to the HELLO homepage.

This website was created as a last ditch effort to hopefully reach someone at Google to get them to keep this GREAT instant messenger service going. There truly is no instant messenger out like it.

My colleagues and I use HELLO every single day, all day long to stay in touch, share photos and screenshots instantly and to generally stay connected during our busy workdays. It has been our preferred way to communicate for several years now.

I’m hoping that I’m not the only one that desperately wants the HELLO service to stay active.

Although the HELLO service is free, the value that we’ve received from the service is priceless. We’ve never needed support. The software just “works”. I, for one, would be willing to pay for the HELLO instant messaging service to keep it active.

What you can do:

I don’t know if others are in the same boat, but I’m asking those of you who use HELLO daily to post in the comments below and hopefully we can get someone at Google to rethink the cancellation of this great service.

Also, please DIGG this story so hopefully we can get more attention drawn to this great service loss.

EDIT May 14 6:07PM: Thanks to commenter Melanie Morales for pointing out that HELLO has revised the homepage to note that the deadline for shutdown is now extended to June 11th. Hopefully that gives us more time to change their minds