then there's a list of things that are STILL around but have stifled competition anyways: gmail (hopefully people might get behind mailpile but i doubt it), gtalk (again, we have to wait another decade at least before a sensible IM standard is used), G+ (how many in the tech community have moved from one company (facebook) to another (google Plus). Just because they haven't axed a product like they did with reader of voice doesn't mean they won't misuse their power. Look at all the features they've removed from google maps because "mama google knows best". And no one dares to compete with them.
[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
send to phone was a firefox feature. it was axed. the functionality is now only available in chrome.
wave isn't built into the browser, it was axed. but as others have pointed out it wasn't my best, most shining example
How does this stifle competition? If people use Gmail, it's because they think it's better than the alternatives. There aren't even network effects in play, since it's just email.
>gtalk
...is now called Hangouts, and is a flagship product.
>G+ (how many in the tech community have moved from one company (facebook) to another (google Plus)
Um... not me, for one, and certainly not for non-professional contacts. G+ is a ghost town.
G+ is very much not a ghost town....
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discont...
[2] http://bgr.com/2013/05/07/google-services-shut-down-study/