Google is launching a new initiative on Google+ called Connected Classrooms that enables students to take "virtual field trips" through Google+ Hangouts, visiting places they would otherwise never be able to explore. Field trips kick off today with the Seattle Aquarium, the Minnesota Zoo and the Solar Impulse hangar. Later, teachers can sign up to take their classrooms on virtual field trips hosted by organizations like National Geographic, Matilda the Musical, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more than 20 other partners.

"Connected Classrooms aims to make it easier for teachers to access exciting educational content to share with their students," Google said.

In addition to the virtual field trips, teachers who visit the Connected Classrooms site will have the opportunity to join a Google+ Community with other educators to collaborate on field trips and share best practices for using digital tools in the classroom.

If you are a K-12 teacher, head over to the Connected Classrooms site and learn how your classroom can participate.

Staying with Google, the search giant recently decided to get rid of iGoogle, a tool that let users set up personalized home page on their Web browser.

Google has already shut many other services and features, such as Google Reader, Google Talk, Google Latitude, Google Wave and Google Videos.