You have a basic right to earn a living, no contract can take that away from you. It's not worth the paper it written on.

Doesn't matter. First thing you sign when you join a new employer is an agreement that says something like "I am not under any other company's non-compete".

While this might not be enforceable, if you were a small company in a similar space, would you really risk hiring someone if you might get attacked by Google's lawyers?

Yes, I would if I were in the state of California. If you were small, google wouldn't notice anyways.

And what if you had two candidates that were of similar ability, and one of which has shown you his Google non-compete agreement?

The second is an idiot who doesn't know how to negotiate or use Google (to search for the thousands of citations to the precedent). Don't hire the guy.

News flash: big companies will try to screw you, even when it's against the law. If you do not resist, you are a chump, and I feel that hiring passive chumps can only lead to trouble.

Not nice, maybe, but it's worth understanding. When push comes to shove, you have to stand up for yourself.

Those that signed the NCA and then discarded it got themselves a free 2 months of severance. I applaud their canny maneuvering; Google is poorer for firing them.

Hmm, that's a great point I hadn't thought of before.

From an employer's perspective I can clearly see given 2 identical candidates why you might want to shy away from the one who has signed a non-compete with a company known for having alot of lawyers like Google or Microsoft.

Might be good publicity, but also somewhat of a risk, if you were sued.

It's not that simple -- it depends state-by-state and case-by-case. But California, especially, and New York are both very much for the employee's right to compete in such matters. I understand Nevada and Texas, not as much.