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It's possible I'm mistaken, but all the examples of 'abandonment' you've listed are free.

Here, you're paying. It's a business. You've got the same guarantee as you've got with Dropbox.

FWIW, I didn't find monetization to have any clear benefit in my analysis: http://www.gwern.net/Google%20shutdowns

Google Checkout was abandoned and wasn't free

And replaced with Google Wallet which is, at least as a user, the exact same thing or better and exists on more platforms. That one isn't really a surprise.

No, Wallet isn't the same thing. Checkout was a merchant solution (not a user solution) which wallet doesn't fill.

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