I've always wondered why Google doesn't just slowly raise the prices on things like this until either everyone switches due to attrition and they can shut it do

I've always wondered why Google doesn't just slowly raise the prices on things like this until either everyone switches due to attrition and they can shut it down noiselessly, or it becomes profitable. There's been a few services (Google Reader and CodeSearch) that I would have paid a couple bucks a month for.