We recently received an e-mail from the company Apture, stating their acquisition by Google, and will be terminating the service in about one month. We used the online service we used to make live references to Wikipedia automatically and to enable on the fly deep dives into specific terms we use on our site.
More than a disappointment that the service will disappear, it demonstrates how both the employees at Apture and Google think about customers.
Terminating the service without a decent forewarning to “thousands of publishers” illustrates how many technologists are merely opportunists, trolling from one financial reward to another while trampling its hard-earned early-adopter customers in the process.
Here is the gist of the e-mail Apture sent on November the 11th, 2011:
On December 20 we will discontinue Apture’s product and services. When this happens, users will no longer be able to highlight and search terms with Apture on your web pages.
In the words of Maya Angelou,
I will forget how you treated me, but I will never forget how you made me feel. — Maya Angelou
I will forget about Apture, but I will never forget about the reputation of Google, as witnessed by the actions of the company it acquired. It is not smart to bite the public hand of trust that feeds you.
