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The email Sparrow is sending out, looks like there won't be any future feature additions: Hello, We're excited to let you know that Sparrow has been acq

The email Sparrow is sending out, looks like there won't be any future feature additions: Hello, We're excited to let you know that Sparrow has been acquired by Google! You can view our public announcement here, but I wanted to reach out directly to make sure you were aware of the news. We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to build products for all of our wonderful users who have supported us over the years. We can't thank you enough. We look forward to working on some new and exciting projects at Google! Dom Leca CEO Sparrow

pwenzel 14y ago
This is extremely sad. I use Sparrow all day, every single day.
- imd23 14y ago
  Same here. I use it even for chat! It's an awesome app, so well designed and programmed. Makes me sad.
cheap 14y ago
Key point, "we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps".
markgx 14y ago
Looks like we can kiss getting push notifications on iPhone and the teased iPad version goodbye.
- RKearney 14y ago
  And I just purchased that app yesterday. I'll try and pursue getting a refund from Apple, although I'm not sure how successful I will be in the process. It's aggravating seeing potentially amazing start-up companies get purchased by a large company and then everything they've done seemingly ceases to exist. Also, how many companies that Google acquires eventually just die off?
antr 14y ago
This is one of the issues one confronts (at least myself, as a user and startup founder) when purchasing goods and services from other startups: >... we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps. I was hoping to see Sparrow for Mac further develop, it's my default email client, but it still has plenty of room for improvement. I just hope that "someone" continues where it left off. Anybody knows if this is an acq-hire, acquisition with intention to further develop Sparrow, acquisition + shutting Sparrow?
atourgates 14y ago
As someone who bought Sparrow on the day it was released - and is in love with it - this feels like a big middle finger to the customers who have been supporting them. The core of my disappointment is the expectation of future development that comes with buying into a relatively new piece of software. I didn't buy Sparrow thinking I was paying for a piece of software that was feature-complete. I bought Sparrow mail as a piece of innovative software along with the promise of lots of great future updates to come. Now, those future updates are done, because Google killed them by acquihiring the Sparrow team. It feels like more and more, when buying into a new exciting project, the risk is less that the project will fail on its own, and more that it'll be destroyed by an acquihire. Some day, I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a barrier to startups acquiring dedicated new users.
- ceejayoz 14y ago
  Now imagine if you'd bought it last weekend in their half-off sale. https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 "Let's make as much money from our abandonware as possible before we have to tell everyone it's abandonware."
  - uptown 14y ago
    That's when I finally bought-in. The thing has a critical bug with iOS6 ... no clue if it'll ever get resolved.
    - Sachse 14y ago
      I'm sure that will go under "critical updates".
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - yoda_sl 14y ago
      If you 'critical' bug is about the rendering of email on one column... looks like latest beta 3 is solving that.
danielpal 14y ago
This pisses me off. It's irresponsible to the current customers. I hope other startups don't follow. Its OK to sell, but they should have pushed Google to maintain an support Sparrow for at least 2 more years.
- gurkendoktor 14y ago
  Alternatively, open-source Sparrow. I don't think it's the source code that Google bought them for.
  - bsg75 14y ago
    Would be wonderful if it happened, but Google seems to be a place where good acquisitions go to die.
    - nickpresta 14y ago
      Really? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/23/googles-david-lawee-one-third-of-googles-acquisitions-are-failures-and-slide-is-definitely-one-of-them/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/23/googles-david-lawee-one-thi... So really, Google seems to be the place where 1/3 of acquisitions (in which not 100% are "good", per se) go to die.
      - bsg75 14y ago
        These are not the success stories of Sparrow, but 3 that I recall that when purchased went dark in some form, to (possibly) re-emerge less than their former selves. http://etherpad.com/ http://etherpad.com/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2008/01/jaiku-users-flee-to-twitter-as-a-result-of-googles-neglect/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2008/01/jaiku-users-flee-to-... http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/27/it-took-16-months-but-google-relaunches-jotspot/ http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/27/it-took-16-months-but-googl... Its not to say that this acquisition is not a great thing for the Sparrow team, or that Gmail may someday improve (UI wise), but it is an unfortunate trend for users when a great small / niche product is absorbed and obliterated.
crag 14y ago
What a self serving piece of crap email. I'm happy he and his team are excited. But it's terrible news for their users. They make it sound like we should be happy and excited about this. Please... I've lost all respect for this guy. The right thing to do was spin it off to someone else; or make arrangements with Google to continuing development, or open source the whole app. The wrong thing to do was to screw the "user" by leaving us all hanging.

pwenzel 14y ago

This is extremely sad. I use Sparrow all day, every single day.

imd23 14y ago
Same here. I use it even for chat! It's an awesome app, so well designed and programmed. Makes me sad.

cheap 14y ago

Key point, "we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps".

markgx 14y ago

Looks like we can kiss getting push notifications on iPhone and the teased iPad version goodbye.

RKearney 14y ago
And I just purchased that app yesterday. I'll try and pursue getting a refund from Apple, although I'm not sure how successful I will be in the process. It's aggravating seeing potentially amazing start-up companies get purchased by a large company and then everything they've done seemingly ceases to exist. Also, how many companies that Google acquires eventually just die off?

antr 14y ago

This is one of the issues one confronts (at least myself, as a user and startup founder) when purchasing goods and services from other startups: >... we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps. I was hoping to see Sparrow for Mac further develop, it's my default email client, but it still has plenty of room for improvement. I just hope that "someone" continues where it left off. Anybody knows if this is an acq-hire, acquisition with intention to further develop Sparrow, acquisition + shutting Sparrow?

atourgates 14y ago

As someone who bought Sparrow on the day it was released - and is in love with it - this feels like a big middle finger to the customers who have been supporting them. The core of my disappointment is the expectation of future development that comes with buying into a relatively new piece of software. I didn't buy Sparrow thinking I was paying for a piece of software that was feature-complete. I bought Sparrow mail as a piece of innovative software along with the promise of lots of great future updates to come. Now, those future updates are done, because Google killed them by acquihiring the Sparrow team. It feels like more and more, when buying into a new exciting project, the risk is less that the project will fail on its own, and more that it'll be destroyed by an acquihire. Some day, I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a barrier to startups acquiring dedicated new users.

ceejayoz 14y ago
Now imagine if you'd bought it last weekend in their half-off sale. https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 "Let's make as much money from our abandonware as possible before we have to tell everyone it's abandonware."
- uptown 14y ago
  That's when I finally bought-in. The thing has a critical bug with iOS6 ... no clue if it'll ever get resolved.
  - Sachse 14y ago
    I'm sure that will go under "critical updates".
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - yoda_sl 14y ago
    If you 'critical' bug is about the rendering of email on one column... looks like latest beta 3 is solving that.

danielpal 14y ago

This pisses me off. It's irresponsible to the current customers. I hope other startups don't follow. Its OK to sell, but they should have pushed Google to maintain an support Sparrow for at least 2 more years.

gurkendoktor 14y ago
Alternatively, open-source Sparrow. I don't think it's the source code that Google bought them for.
- bsg75 14y ago
  Would be wonderful if it happened, but Google seems to be a place where good acquisitions go to die.
  - nickpresta 14y ago
    Really? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/23/googles-david-lawee-one-third-of-googles-acquisitions-are-failures-and-slide-is-definitely-one-of-them/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/23/googles-david-lawee-one-thi... So really, Google seems to be the place where 1/3 of acquisitions (in which not 100% are "good", per se) go to die.
    - bsg75 14y ago
      These are not the success stories of Sparrow, but 3 that I recall that when purchased went dark in some form, to (possibly) re-emerge less than their former selves. http://etherpad.com/ http://etherpad.com/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2008/01/jaiku-users-flee-to-twitter-as-a-result-of-googles-neglect/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2008/01/jaiku-users-flee-to-... http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/27/it-took-16-months-but-google-relaunches-jotspot/ http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/27/it-took-16-months-but-googl... Its not to say that this acquisition is not a great thing for the Sparrow team, or that Gmail may someday improve (UI wise), but it is an unfortunate trend for users when a great small / niche product is absorbed and obliterated.

crag 14y ago

What a self serving piece of crap email. I'm happy he and his team are excited. But it's terrible news for their users. They make it sound like we should be happy and excited about this. Please... I've lost all respect for this guy. The right thing to do was spin it off to someone else; or make arrangements with Google to continuing development, or open source the whole app. The wrong thing to do was to screw the "user" by leaving us all hanging.