Hacker News Reader

Google isn't a charity. The product doesn't make any money, so all maintenance is an irrecoverable expense.

Google is basically split into "build things that make users happy" teams and "build things that make Google money" teams, so I think that on an individual product level you may be correct, but in aggregate at the high level Google believes there is a ton of value in revenue-less products.

Now for Podcasts (or any given product) there's always going to be some calculus of "is it enough value to justify the cost", and clearly Google believes the answer here is no.

What's the business cost of leaving a sour taste in people's mouths over and over again?

Really depends on "how many people". Also if its roughly the same group of people they're making angry over and over, and they don't see an impact to the bottom line, then I'd say the answer is "pretty small", at least relative to Google's size (at which its all about volume)

Google answered this. The cost is higher than leaving a sour taste in people's mouths.

Maybe, or maybe they haven't even considered it and the cumulative effect it will have.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com