Is this comment based on the assumption that because users do not pay for most of Google's services, they should have zero expectations about the availability and longevity of said service? If so, let me approach this from the reverse:
A company creates a service to generate revenue. Google provides numerous free services from which they show advertisements (or crowdsource free labor such as the google voice training system or google image search tagging "game") to generate revenue. Another company might charge for said service but not flood me with advertisements. Both companies make revenue from their service offering.
Why is it okay for Google to shutdown services (which either served their purpose or weren't profitable) but so unspeakable if another company were to do the same for a paid service?
Regardless if you agree with that viewpoint or not, at the end of the day, Google has a long history of creating products, gaining users, and shutting down those products. This history has made it extremely difficult for them to break into a market such as this one because quite frankly nobody trusts that the product will be around very long. The utter lack of customer service also makes it difficult to place faith in their systems.
A company creates a service to generate revenue. Google provides numerous free services from which they show advertisements (or crowdsource free labor such as the google voice training system or google image search tagging "game") to generate revenue. Another company might charge for said service but not flood me with advertisements. Both companies make revenue from their service offering.
Why is it okay for Google to shutdown services (which either served their purpose or weren't profitable) but so unspeakable if another company were to do the same for a paid service?
Regardless if you agree with that viewpoint or not, at the end of the day, Google has a long history of creating products, gaining users, and shutting down those products. This history has made it extremely difficult for them to break into a market such as this one because quite frankly nobody trusts that the product will be around very long. The utter lack of customer service also makes it difficult to place faith in their systems.