Google keeping Reader free wasn't an act of altruism, at least not as far as I'm concerned. I think it gave them the kind of cover they needed to shutter it whe

Google keeping Reader free wasn't an act of altruism, at least not as far as I'm concerned. I think it gave them the kind of cover they needed to shutter it when Reader ceased to be useful. G even resisted monetizing after large numbers of users begged them to take their money and make a viable business out of it. Reader was never a product, it was a strategy. 37S saw Breeze only as a product to live and die on it's own merits (even if some customers really loved it). Google saw Reader as a product to manipulate the market (if you subscribe to that theory). This is why I think Google deserves to get ripped while 37signals shouldn't, even if Reader only had "users" and not "customers".