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I get it, and we can all have a bit of a laugh/cry here. But somewhere on Twin Earth, slate.com is publishing an article complaining about the confusing glut o

I get it, and we can all have a bit of a laugh/cry here. But somewhere on Twin Earth, slate.com is publishing an article complaining about the confusing glut of Google services and how they need to trim their product line to more relevant pieces. Not commenting on the loss of Reader itself, but I can't fault a company for discontinuing (or absorbing/streamlining) products that began as flights of fancy. If anything, I'm impressed by how many runaway successes Google has had.

mistercow 14y ago
But some of these didn't begin as flights of fancy, but as startups acquired by Google, and I think that really highlights the problem here, which is reputation. When you use a product created by a startup, you realize that there's some risk that they're not going to make it. An advantage that a company like Google has is that nobody expects them to go anywhere. So if they create a service like Google Reader, you might expect that it's going to stick around. And obviously Google doesn't owe that to anyone. But I'll bet that they've benefited from people making that assumption, and I'll bet that they'll see some hurt if people realize that it's not a valid one. After all, a company that does nothing but reader, has 10% its user base, and makes money off of those users might actually be profitable. But Google's model is to give away a thousand loss leaders, and when you play that game, you have to look at percentages. At this point, I'd be far more likely to take a chance on a small independent service than any new gadget Google puts out.
- tommi 14y ago
  If you aren't paying anything for the product and there doesn't seem to be a business model for it, why would you assume it won't go away at some point?
  - spinchange 14y ago
    Businesses pay for Apps and the ability to sync contacts and calendars is going away soon, too.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    Again, it's about reputation. Most users don't want to have to try to examine the motives of the people behind every product they use to decide if it's likely to stick around. Most users have neither the savvy nor the desire to analyze business models and see if they seem sustainable. They want to say "Google - that's a solid company, so it should be safe to depend on this." And if Google keeps invalidating that assumption, people will stop making it. Instead, they'll say "Google is famous for discontinuing their products, so I'll hold off on using this until I know it's really, really popular." And that could make launching new services very difficult for Google in the future.
marshray 14y ago
It may have begun as a 'flight of fancy', but I think a lot of the public outcry comes down to the the fact that a lot of users, as individuals, became quite invested in the product.

mistercow 14y ago

But some of these didn't begin as flights of fancy, but as startups acquired by Google, and I think that really highlights the problem here, which is reputation. When you use a product created by a startup, you realize that there's some risk that they're not going to make it. An advantage that a company like Google has is that nobody expects them to go anywhere. So if they create a service like Google Reader, you might expect that it's going to stick around. And obviously Google doesn't owe that to anyone. But I'll bet that they've benefited from people making that assumption, and I'll bet that they'll see some hurt if people realize that it's not a valid one. After all, a company that does nothing but reader, has 10% its user base, and makes money off of those users might actually be profitable. But Google's model is to give away a thousand loss leaders, and when you play that game, you have to look at percentages. At this point, I'd be far more likely to take a chance on a small independent service than any new gadget Google puts out.

tommi 14y ago
If you aren't paying anything for the product and there doesn't seem to be a business model for it, why would you assume it won't go away at some point?
- spinchange 14y ago
  Businesses pay for Apps and the ability to sync contacts and calendars is going away soon, too.
- mistercow 14y ago
  Again, it's about reputation. Most users don't want to have to try to examine the motives of the people behind every product they use to decide if it's likely to stick around. Most users have neither the savvy nor the desire to analyze business models and see if they seem sustainable. They want to say "Google - that's a solid company, so it should be safe to depend on this." And if Google keeps invalidating that assumption, people will stop making it. Instead, they'll say "Google is famous for discontinuing their products, so I'll hold off on using this until I know it's really, really popular." And that could make launching new services very difficult for Google in the future.

marshray 14y ago

It may have begun as a 'flight of fancy', but I think a lot of the public outcry comes down to the the fact that a lot of users, as individuals, became quite invested in the product.