But, that was the first Google product where it really hit home, to me, how even if a product is fantastic and useful, Google will kill it without a second thought.
It fundamentally changed my attitude toward Google and made me far more deliberate about what services I choose to rely on, especially from the big G.
I'm curious if Clayton Christensen's would add some exceptions to his follow up book to "The Innovator's Dilemma" [1] ("The Innovators Solution") where the solution to BigCo failing to innovate is because they can never comprehend/tolerate any business which might cannibalize their core business even in the slightest (like a niche RSS reader taking away views from Google News and Google SERPs) is to do "intrapeanuership". Which is where your side plays are isolated/insulated from the downward pressure of established powerful internal teams controlling the current pet business model.
I doubt Reader was ever going to be a serious business but maybe there should be a much more explicit execption for the side products your customers love that also don't fit perfectly into the parent companies main business/product dev strategy.
This. I also switched to Feedly, no biggie. But it made me take a hard look at what else I was dependent on Google for. About 5 years ago I excised Google from my life as much as I good, including sunsetting my gmail account.
I still use my Android phone, and use maps for navigation and browse youtube online, but I use as little 'account' features as is necessary. If I wanted to switch to iPhone tomorrow, there'd be next to zero migration headaches.
I also moved to Feedly, but the shuttering of Reader meant that many websites stopped posting RSS links, and some big sites stopped supporting it altogether.
But, that was the first Google product where it really hit home, to me, how even if a product is fantastic and useful, Google will kill it without a second thought.
It fundamentally changed my attitude toward Google and made me far more deliberate about what services I choose to rely on, especially from the big G.
Obligatory link to https://killedbygoogle.com/