[Elessar]

It's possible I'm mistaken, but all the examples of 'abandonment' you've listed are free.

Here, you're paying. It's a business. You've got the same guarantee as you've got with Dropbox.

[gwern]

FWIW, I didn't find monetization to have any clear benefit in my analysis: http://www.gwern.net/Google%20shutdowns

[rstupek]

Google Checkout was abandoned and wasn't free

[Groxx]

And replaced with Google Wallet which is, at least as a user, the exact same thing or better and exists on more platforms. That one isn't really a surprise.

[rstupek]

No, Wallet isn't the same thing. Checkout was a merchant solution (not a user solution) which wallet doesn't fill.