I stumbled upon a story today that truly upsets me. Nik Software, a company who I have endorsed and vouched for from the day I purchased their product, was purchased by Google today. I went to their website to confirm it and sure enough, the front page has a google logo on it. I think we have all seen what goggle has done to many websites that have now seen better days, but I am truly disappointed that Google has bought Nik. Their site simply had this message to say to their users:
We are pleased to announce that Google has acquired Nik Software. For nearly 17 years, we’ve been guided by our motto, “photography first”, as we worked to build world class digital image editing tools. We’ve always aspired to share our passion for photography with everyone, and with Google’s support we hope to be able to help many millions more people create awesome pictures.
We’re incredibly grateful for all of your support and hope you’ll join us on the next phase of our journey as part of Google.
All our best!
The Nik Software Team
For those who don’t know anything about Nik Software, they make some of the most incredible plugins for Photoshop and Aperture. Plugins that have helped me to create some of the greatest photos I have to my name. The greatest thing about the company was their customer support. I have only had two (very minor) problems with the software in the time that I have used it, but when I did have troubles I was greeted by a welcoming customer service staff who was pleased to help me and genuinely cared. If the face of this company changes from what I have known, it will be a very sad day.
I do realize that this is a fairly depressing post, but I just want to express the disappointment I feel towards this news. For a company who was guided by the motto, “photography first”, I have a feeling Google doesn’t quite sing the same tune. I hope this finds its way to Kevin La Rue and others at Nik Software so they know I congratulate them on their personal achievement, and wish them the best for the company and its future endeavors.
