I maintain the only reason Google ever shut any product down was because they weren't able to extract useful data from it fast enough. It's the only reason any of their products exist.
Disagree
For many of the services they shut down, they accomplished what they wanted.
Sometimes, the purpose isn't to create a shiny new product people enjoy and will pay for
Sometimes, the purpose is to create competition for a product you don't like, make sure they fail by having a decent competing offering, and then shutting the offering down when the threat of competition has passed
I maintain the only reason Google ever shut any product down was because they weren't able to extract useful data from it fast enough. It's the only reason any of their products exist.
Disagree
For many of the services they shut down, they accomplished what they wanted.
Sometimes, the purpose isn't to create a shiny new product people enjoy and will pay for
Sometimes, the purpose is to create competition for a product you don't like, make sure they fail by having a decent competing offering, and then shutting the offering down when the threat of competition has passed
Google + being a prime example? /s