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Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

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Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#491

Post by dkrich »

ericd wrote: post #443
dkrich wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, absolutely correct. Well, save for Nike, which was founded by an MBA. Oh yeah, and Apple, whose CEO has an MBA and was personally selected by Steve Jobs. Well, now that I think about it, Meg Whitman, the current CEO of HP and former CEO of eBay has an MBA. And wasn't Bonobos founded by a Stanford MBA? I think Birchbox was born by a group of MBA's as well. Except for those and probably thousands of other exceptio…

Did I miss HP turning around and becoming an awesome company again? Has Apple been doing as well as it did under Jobs? Do you think it still will be in 5 years?

Did I miss HP turning around and becoming an awesome company again?

Apparently. Have you checked the stock market lately?

Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#492

Post by smackfu »

zmb_ wrote: post #29
smackfu wrote: post #5

Honestly, this completely makes sense given how Google has been killing off non-profitable products lately. Why pay engineers to work on projects that will never meet a business case? This isn't the olden days of Google, where they would shovel anything out there and see if it stuck.

The same reason why a VC fund will invest in 10 startups knowing that 9 will have to be closed down as failures. 20% time meant that Google was continually making those bets in various areas, knowing that most will fail but that a few will succeed in a big way. They now seem to think that their management has obtained good enough crystal balls to be able to determine beforehand which of the potential products will su…

It really depends on the real stats though. Because if only 1 out of 100 20% projects is worth anything, maybe it's just not a good use of your engineers. Like a VC fund with too low a success rate just goes out of business.

Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#493

Post by vpatryshev »

dekhn wrote: post #353
driverdan wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calling 20% time 120% time is fair. Realistically it's hard to do your day job productively and also build a new project from scratch. You have to be willing to put in hours outside of your normal job to be successful. Then it's not 20% time, it's personal time you're giving to your employer for free. Why would you do that? Why not build your projects outside of Google and keep them for yourself (assuming it's a pr…

Why would I give my time for free to Google? Because my entire career- well before I started working here- has been dependent on things that Google has given to me for free. Like Google Search. Search helped me learn to run linux clusters effectively (it was far better than AltaVista for searching for specific error messages) which ensured I had a job, even in the dotcom busts. It helped me learn python, which also p…

Are you a Googler? You are just brainwashed. Several months after you leave Google your brain restores its sanity, and you will laugh at all this sectarian bs that you currently consider as a deep truth or something.

Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#494

Post by tetanova »

dekhn wrote: post #353
driverdan wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calling 20% time 120% time is fair. Realistically it's hard to do your day job productively and also build a new project from scratch. You have to be willing to put in hours outside of your normal job to be successful. Then it's not 20% time, it's personal time you're giving to your employer for free. Why would you do that? Why not build your projects outside of Google and keep them for yourself (assuming it's a pr…

Why would I give my time for free to Google? Because my entire career- well before I started working here- has been dependent on things that Google has given to me for free. Like Google Search. Search helped me learn to run linux clusters effectively (it was far better than AltaVista for searching for specific error messages) which ensured I had a job, even in the dotcom busts. It helped me learn python, which also p…

Are you kidding? Google provides you web search and email for free? How does it happen that they make profit? They are profitable enterprise, they are no non-profitable business. Information from text of your emails and your clicks on search results is more valuable than google expense to support email and web search for you.

Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#495

Post by tetanova »

dekhn wrote: post #122

I am a Googler. I will only speak to my personal experience, and the experience of people around me: 20% time still exists, and is encouraged as a mechanism to explore exciting new ideas without the complexity and cost of a real product. My last three years were spent turning my 20% project into a product, and my job now is spent turning another 20% project into a product. There was never any management pressure from…

Give me names of 4-5 Google products launched recently which were results of 20% project? Please, just 4-5 product. Real products, not toys like "Google Surveys". Or could you name me few products which would be initiated by engineers, not by VPs?

Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#496

Post by tetanova »

dekhn wrote: post #353
driverdan wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calling 20% time 120% time is fair. Realistically it's hard to do your day job productively and also build a new project from scratch. You have to be willing to put in hours outside of your normal job to be successful. Then it's not 20% time, it's personal time you're giving to your employer for free. Why would you do that? Why not build your projects outside of Google and keep them for yourself (assuming it's a pr…

Why would I give my time for free to Google? Because my entire career- well before I started working here- has been dependent on things that Google has given to me for free. Like Google Search. Search helped me learn to run linux clusters effectively (it was far better than AltaVista for searching for specific error messages) which ensured I had a job, even in the dotcom busts. It helped me learn python, which also p…

You remind me one of those users @ youtube "Google, thank you very much for excellent music and movies! You give it to us for free! Thank you, Google, you are very kind!"

Re: Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

#497

Post by ericd »

dkrich wrote: post #491
ericd wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did I miss HP turning around and becoming an awesome company again? Has Apple been doing as well as it did under Jobs? Do you think it still will be in 5 years?

Did I miss HP turning around and becoming an awesome company again? Apparently. Have you checked the stock market lately?

Yeah, we're in the middle of a massive bull run which has swelled every company in my portfolio like a balloon. And the correlation between stock price and awesome company in the short run is really really tenuous. Many of the less savory leaders out there have a penchant for making short term profits look awesome by killing off investment in long term prospects, and the market eats it up.
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