The year Google became "Evil"?

:: Google

Via Daring Fireball I found Google, destroyer of ecosystems. Aldo Cortesi writes:

The truth is this: Google destroyed the RSS feed reader ecosystem with a subsidized product, stifling its competitors and killing innovation. It then neglected Google Reader itself for years, after it had effectively become the only player. Today it does further damage by buggering up the already beleaguered links between publishers and readers. It would have been better for the Internet if Reader had never been at all.

What struck me is the obvious search-and-replace:

The truth is this: Microsoft destroyed the browser market with a subsidized product, stifling its competitors and killing innovation. It then neglected Internet Explorer itself for years, after it had effectively become the only player. It would have been better for the Internet if Internet Explorer had never been at all.

Will we look back on 2013 as the year that Google became “Evil”? When “do no evil” became a quaint artifact of corporate mythology?

I realize plenty of people have probably been saying Google is evil for some time already. And some won’t say it for a long time, if ever. Just like with Microsoft.

It’s weird timing. Couple days ago, on Wednesday, I sign up for my first-ever Google I/O conference. Later that evening, Google announces “spring cleaning”, killing Google Reader and CalDAV. Thursday everyone forgets it’s Pi Day; how sad. I’m spending time looking at Google Reader alternatives. I’m downloading Thunderbird and starting to question my continued use of Gmail. My cherished Gmail!

Is this how it starts, step by step? Someday will we look back on this as the inflection point?