Should we hold it against google when they acquire a startup and shut it down? Or is it preferable for them to wait for the startup to wind down the service first and then swoop in?

I think it's important to distinguish between consumer services, especially beta and one via acquisition, and core parts of their cloud / big-data ecosystem. Do you worry about Azure services because Microsoft killed WMP or WM10 or FoxPro?

I don't know, I'm assuming users just care that the product or service continues to exist and get better. If an acquisition helps then great, otherwise... sure, we can blame whatever decisions led to the demise, although it's rarely as simple as "stupid big company wasted a bunch of money and made people sad".