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Right in Google's announcement: "Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months." http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cl...

How is 37signals' announcement any better?

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Yup, google has an engineering team dedicated to exactly that:

http://www.dataliberation.org/

37signals recommended functioning alternative services, not just data export.

So them saving users a Google Search for the alternatives was all it took to clear them? Damn, if only big G had known, they could have saved themselves a lot of flak.

(Actually, it wouldn't have mattered. Don't kid yourself.)

Yes, but that's not really Google's responsibility.

They deliberately gave a three month sunset for users to find another solution. That's entirely the point of a sunset.

Their product is also free, so it's not like they're hurting businesses or real customers by not helping them find alternatives. They're not really obligated to even do anything at all - it was a free service. If they were being paid it would make more sense.

It's not 37S's responsibility, either.

I believe we can reasonably hold them to it. You can't just shut off the lights to a product that people pay for (well, you could, but that's a liability).

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