The Google Graveyard Expands
Google, writing in an email to me Monday morning:
Hi Eshu,
Thank you for being a Google One member where you enjoy extra storage, family sharing, and more. We’re writing to let you know about some updates coming to your Google One subscription starting on May 15. These changes are designed to streamline your benefits while ensuring you have a valuable subscription experience…
Phasing out two benefits: With a focus on providing the most in-demand features and benefits, we’re discontinuing free shipping for select print orders from Google Photos (in Canada, the UK, US, and EU) starting on May 15 and VPN by Google One later this year.
My subscription price is still the same, so I guess it’s time to add another product to the Google Graveyard. Speaking of Google One and the Google Graveyard, here is Abner Li, reporting for 9to5Google:
Google is now “discontinuing the VPN feature as [they] found people simply weren’t using it.” The company tells 9to5Google that the deprecation will let the team “refocus” and “support more in-demand features with Google One.”
Earlier this year, Google One hit 100 million subscribers and CEO Sundar Pichai teased it as a future growth area driven by AI. Today’s change follows this week’s news about AI editing tools in Google Photos going free in the coming months and no longer requiring a subscription save for unlimited Magic Editor usage.
Google One included a virtual private network service, which the company launched in 2020 for some odd reason, but now that’s gone too. And again, users’ subscription prices are staying the same. Anyone who subscribed to Google One, especially to a yearly plan, is now just getting prematurely cut off because Google doesn’t care about supporting products.
Again, add it to the Google Graveyard.