Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool is officially dead. It now redirects to a support page explaining that, “Keyword Planner has replaced Keyword Tool.”

Was Google replacing the Keyword Tool a good move? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Google announced back in May that it was combing Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator into a new tool called Keyword Planner.

“Behind every successful AdWords campaign are well planned out keywords and ad groups,” said AdWords product manager Deepti Bhatnagar at the time. “In the past, you may have relied on tools like the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator to identify new keywords and ad groups, get traffic estimates, and choose competitive bids and budgets. Over time however, we’ve heard from you that having two tools for search campaign building was cumbersome.”

“We’re constantly working to simplify the process of building campaigns, and today we’re happy to announce the launch of a new tool, Keyword Planner, which combines the functionality of the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator into a smooth, integrated workflow,” Bhatnagar added. “You can use Keyword Planner to find new keyword and ad group ideas, get performance estimates for them to find the bid and budget that are right for you, and then add them to your campaigns.”

Apparently the new tool isn’t going over so well among Keyword Tool fans. As Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land points out, Twitter users have been complaining quite a bit.

Here are a few examples:

A WebProNews reader (in the comments) writes, “OMG Google, what have you done to me. I used the old tool to research keywords for meta data on websites. If finding good organic search terms wasn’t hard enough you have now made it almost impossible to understand what has a low competition.”

There are plenty of others who would echo such sentiment. Google already made things harder on webmasters with the big Google Analytics switch to “not provided”. Some feel that this complicates things more.

For organic search, however, Google has clearly been looking to move further and further away from keyword dependence for the results it returns.

This week Google also launched some new conversion tracking features for AdWords cross-account conversion tracking and cross-account search funnels .

If you have multiple AdWords accounts, you’ll be able to measure conversions across all accounts with one tag, and use cross-account search funnels reports in your My Client Center to get a better handle on your customers’ conversion paths across all keywords in all accounts.

WIth cross-account conversion tracking, advertisers can create a snippet of code for use across all accounts.

The search funnels reports include the Overview report, the Top Conversion Paths report and the Assisted Conversions report. The Overview shows you how consumers interact with all of your adds across all accounts, the Top Conversion Paths report shows you which combinations of keywords drive the most conversions, and the Assisted Conversions report shows upper funnel keywords across your accounts that might not be receiving enough value in your attribution measurement.

These features will be rolling out over the course of the coming months.

Is the Keyword Tool being replaced a big deal or are people overreacting? Let us know what you think.

Note: This article has been updated from its original form.

Image: Google