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Why should they staff niche projects because some small % of users (and declining) want to keep using it and provide better alternatives?

Because killing off products has given Google a reputation that stops tens of millions of people using any of the fancy new products that Googlers build and launch. In the long term all the effort Googlers put in to new products is a waste of time.

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THIS is exactly what happened when they (google) pushed "Google Chronicle" a security offering- which my employer might use (having some GCP and a lot of Gsuite)- I wouldn't even suggest it to the CISO, based on the nearly 99.9% chance Google will kill it and we would be left with a huge gap.

Because killing off products has given Google a reputation that stops tens of millions of people using any of the fancy new products that Googlers build and launch. In the long term all the effort Googlers put in to new products is a waste of time.

This should be qualified. Killing off products without an alternative has given that reputation. As long as they provide a viable alternative with effective migration it should not count as "killing off". But I hear you, its the perception that matters too.

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