[mcintyre1994]

The right way to respond to this backlash would be to make Reader a paid app and tell people it'll stay while enough pay for it (and of course be transparent about user count etc). I can't see Google going that way though, it was free and if they don't want to pay to support it there's no reason to expect them to.

[r00fus]

Reader is getting the axe because it's getting in the way of the new protege project, G+.

They can't have anything holding Google from becoming what they think Facebook should be.

In fact, they don't just want to become/defeat Facebook, but also Apple (see Nexus/Chromebook) and Amazon (see Shopping Express), not to mention Groupon (see Offers). By trying to be all things, they will become none.

They are on the path to becoming Microsoft. I desperately hope that the Glass/Driverless-car part of the company prevails in corporate culture. I fear that will not be the case.

[stcredzero]

> By trying to be all things, they will become none. They are on the path to becoming Microsoft.

Sounds more like Yahoo to me.

[camus]

    >    By trying to be all things, they will become none.

I just agree 100% they are an advertising company ,that's all they will ever be. The rest is bull. And i'm not going to use any of their vaporware anymore. But it's a great wake up call against all this Saas bull* , i guess journalists had a taste of what the implications of cloud computing are.

[mcintyre1994]

I don't think that's fair. They're an AI/machine learning company at heart now. Primarily that powers advertising of course, but they have the potential to do so much more.

[r00fus]

Just that it used to be that they'd do it because it was cool, and potentially profitable.

Now they'd do things to be profitable first, and cool as a side effect.

It's arguable which iterative path leads to a greater market social and market impact.

[mcintyre1994]

Of course. We shouldn't expect them to pursue things that some people might deem "cool" and their shareholders will deem a loss leader, but to argue that they are just an advertising company is to miss the bulk of what they do in my opinion. They'd be nowhere without AI and machine learning, and really are pushing boundaries of where we can take them things. Primarily to sell adverts and be profitable sure, but what they are doing is not equatable to any other company that sells adverts.