Days after I mentioned a tearful goodbye to Google’s pretty-darn-good Podcasts app (one more service that Google fed to YouTube as if it was a ravenous monster that wanted to be sated), they’re at it once more. This time it’s the Google One VPN, a perk that’s added on once you purchase Google One storage to reinforce the corporate’s cloud companies.

So sayeth an electronic mail that arrived in my inbox final evening, informing me that Google One can be “phasing out two benefits.” The service is now not providing free delivery for picture prints — which admittedly I by no means even thought of utilizing — and the One VPN that comes with my $1.99 a month 200GB storage plan. Google says it’ll be gone someday later this 12 months, although exactly when wasn’t shared.

Why? According to a Google consultant speaking to 9to5Google, the corporate is shutting down the VPN as a result of “people simply weren’t using it.” I’m not keen to take that assertion on religion, although. I’d wager that there’s a much more mercurial calculation occurring behind the scenes, as a result of the multi-device VPN perk that got here with my $2 subscription is way inexpensive than a number of the opponents on the market.

Google One VPN is the corporate’s newest app or service to get the unceremonious axe. While it’s true that many of the issues Google provides to shoppers are free, it nonetheless feels such as you’re relationship somebody with a heartbreaker repute each time you strive a brand new one. I had greater than a dozen feeds in Google Podcasts, all splendidly organized and auto-streaming…and now Google desires me to change it throughout to YouTube, and presumably watch its advertisements each 20 minutes.

The “Google Graveyard” has change into the unofficial title for the corporate’s deserted apps and companies, together with such beloved internments as Google (RSS) Reader, Google Inbox, and Google Music. As The Verge’s David Pierce not too long ago defined, it feels impossible to have faith in Google anymore.

Google’s electronic mail says it’ll proceed to supply the Google One VPN (renamed “VPN from Google”) to house owners of the Pixel 7 cellphone or later fashions, and subscribers to the Google Fi cellphone service may use a free VPN by way of their cell connection. If you’d like to purchase digital personal community service from an organization that gained’t shut it down on the drop of a hat, take a look at PCWorld’s report on the best VPNs.