[danhodgins]

Google is lucky they have so many monopolistic elements in their business model, otherwise customers would be leaving left, right and center due to non-stop shutdowns of serives they launch.

Using a Google app, and investing any time whatsoever is a waste as it will be gone 6 months to 2 years down the road.

Seems like brutal PR to me, but they can get away with it.

It sounds like the service launches and shutdowns are incentivized anyway based on what other commenters are saying, so that would explain it.

Follow the money!