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Trusting Google.

Consolidating resources to better serve users was the motto behind Google killing various services. But a seriously, Google reader? Reader is one of the first prominent services from Google. It belongs to an elite club that enjoys a loyal use base and plethora of third party apps. What's their fate. On a larger scheme, Is Google trustworthy anymore?

Last week Google released this announcement
We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

First, I was so sure it is a run up to a cruel gag for this year's April 1 (still hoping it is). But now, Google reader is no longer in the "More" menu bar. The truth is slowly sinking in. The phase of denial quickly fading. Very quickly Google became an "unreliable" company. Google killed other "Lab" products before, citing lack of user base. It won't be so easy for Google to wasgh hands off Reader using that excuse. The decision appears to be another failure of Google to understand "Social" - If they had to do this anyway, they probably should have come up with some alternative within Google+ for RSS before announcing the kill.

In the recent past, Companies that put $$$ before innovation are growing by the day - Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Google.. So if you are an open source developer or otherwise - investing time and resources in API's from them, How sure are you that they will be around?

Now, Google just announced (and released) Keep. Google's take on Evernote. Releasing Keep within a week of Reader's announcement only hurt its chances of launching well into a strong user base. The general dissent towards Google's policy is confusing at best and Alarming at worst. How long will Google keep the other services around. Will it pull the plug on Photos, even Gmail (Google recently removed free version of Google apps for hosting email). Irony is - this and many other blogs that are crying foul on Google's decision are hosted on Google's blogspot.

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