First they integrate Google Buzz.
Then they decide to cripple all its social features (this is when I mostly stopped using it…) and “integrate” it with G+.
Now they say that it’s usage is in decline (wonder why…), and they decide to kill it.
What Google maybe didn’t think about is the consequences of this act.
The reason why people are confident in google services (like gmail, calendar, dns …) is because Google is always there.
Sure all of those services are free to use, but people trust them because they think that they’ll always be available, and as such are a safe bet.
But with the latest spring cleanings at Google this was proven wrong – solid services like Google Notebook and lots of APIs that where deeply integrated into several sites where shutoff with a few months notice.
This leaves me with an important question – why should I trust web services I can’t self host?
(so many github projects an not one self hosted google reader clone…damn!)
Update: Apparently it exists 😉 – http://tt-rss.org/