[jacquesm]

I hate it. It means that I'll never be able to trust some new service they launch because (1) if I adopt it it will likely get killed and (2) even if they don't they are going to let it suffer a slow death.

I'm more than happy to wait for years if I have to in case something develops accidental mass market traction in which case Google will likely support it long term.

I wonder if Google realizes how much this works against them, without 'early adopters' you don't have much chance of success, even at Google's scale. Burn your early adopters often enough and you'll end up with unused new services.

[greggman2]

I found it fun to use cassettes, laser discs, CDs, DVDs, mini discs, mp3 players even though I no longer use any of them. Also found it fun to go Atari -> Amiga -> DOS PC -> Windows. And Atari 2600 -> NES -> SNES+Genesis -> PS1 etc..

I agree it sucks when support ends but I enjoy it checking it out while it exists.

[pixelbath]

One major difference is that I can still use all those things you listed (and in many cases, do). I can't continue using Google Reader or Google Code.

There are alternatives, of course, but the burden is on me to migrate. When I'm forced to keep migrating away from Google products, I find it less and less appealing to continue using more of their products.

[gowld]

Why is Google the only acceptable vendor?