Ah, Google…what looked like a lasting marriage is turning out to be a torrid love affair that meets a tragic end, like a space probe that crashes into Mars because the engineers mixed up meters and feet in their calculations.

Anyone can use Google search…no account needed.

We started off slowly with Gmail. I was never wild about it and it was not my primary email address, but over time, your new interface and excellent spam filter won me over. The next step was Gtalk, an excellent IM client, which has been woefully underused. Of course, the irony is the lack of advertising was one of the reasons I loved it. Finally, we made the big plunge with Reader. I admit I was late to the game on that one…I was born two weeks late after all. Once the setup was complete, you were a daily, sometimes hourly, part of my existence. We still had room to grow. I was just starting to check out Blogger for my running commentary needs, and who knows where we would have gone from there.

Then you killed Google Reader, and as I posted on your own product you did it “with all of the class of someone spray-painting obscenities on your front lawn.”  I visited Reader one day and a pop-up told me Reader would no longer be a part of our relationship. No explanation whatever…just a one sentence statement in a pop-up window.

An edict from the high priest.

Since then, our relationship has been spiraling downward. Obviously not content with the havoc you are wreaking in my life, you removed the quick link to Reader from the Google home page, so I would no longer have quick access to the dying service. Why you could not have waited until the bitter end is beyond me.

I just don’t trust you anymore. Our relationship could have survived the end of Google Reader if you had told me the truth. You claimed my readership and attention wasn’t enough. Never mind the fact I give more time to Reader than Google+…you know, the social platform for which you have all of five people using regularly.

Now, I am just wondering what the next service to be removed is.

I am not going to wait to find out. I am sorry Google, but it is over, and to be honest, I have been expecting this.

You said “Our motto is don’t be evil”

To be more specific you felt the need to say you weren’t going to be evil. Something that is usually only said when your degree of evilness is precisely in doubt.

I knew that day our relationship would end. I dealt with it in the predictable way: I denied it. I did not have to take action that very day. Perhaps in the future, changes would be made so I would not have to make the agonizing choice. In the back of mind, I knew the game I was playing and I knew how it would end.

Friends who know me well will probably question my commitment. They have seen the cycle and know it better than anyone. Hurt as only a jilted lover can be, I will swear off Google services. Time and distance will dull the pain. Then I will want to try Google all over again, like all the previous attempts didn’t matter. It might be triggered by a new product or a slick interface, for which Google will get the “newsies” (reporters, bloggers, etc.) to report without a critical word about it, as if Google was really just a division of Apple. It might just be triggered by remembrance of things past and questions of why it did not work out the first time, as if the hurdles might be overcome with a renewed insight and enthusiasm. So many things look so tantalizing when you are standing on the outside looking in.

Perhaps I should write myself a letter to read in those times when my courage is failing and my will is weak. If I spend the time to write about this, I should at least be honest about our relationship. The truth is we were never that into each other. I always held you at arm’s length; I never really let you in. As for you, we both know you were only interested in one thing anyway.

It is time to reduce my digital footprint.

Facebook: You have been warned. That is all.