The Big Picture with Google
April 5, 2013
Google has announced that they are doing away with their Google reader. According to The Economist article “Google’s Google Problem” the Google reader is a tool that can be used for reading online content via RSS or Really Simple Syndication. Unlike its search engine only a small group of faithful users regularly rely on the program. However, many of these users rely heavily on the application so there were definitely some bruised feelings when it was announced. On one hand it’s easy to see why Google is making this decision. Google Reader doesn’t make them much money but yet it takes time, resources and money to develop. Getting rid of it won’t put a ding in their pocket and eventually someone else will probably provide the same service. Sounds like a no brainer for Google, right? However, there is another side to the story and something that perhaps Google may not have considered. To some they might come across as if they don’t care about the “little people” and are only focused on serving the majority.
“But as Ezra Klein notes, Google may face a trust issue. Translated into economese, Google has failed to consider the Lucas Critique: adoption behaviour for newly offered services will change in response to Google’s observed penchant for cancelling beloved products.”
Many have built their life around Google products such as the search platform, calendars and other apps but does Google really care about what we want. Google definitely has a lot of power in the mass majority but if they continue to yack away programs that are not as popular and step on the shoes of those “little people” they could eventually be deemed untrustworthy. As more and more companies produce products to battle against Google and they can provide the same type of services, some might decide to take their trust and more importantly their business elsewhere.
April Holmes, April 05, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
