I like your history but it reads like what an insider IC "feels" like the company is doing and based on personal motivations and successes, rather than visible corporate manifestations. I am not an insider but I have had friends there since 2009 and know the skinny on such things as ski trip shenanigans, disney, hawaii, OC awards come and gone, Ruth the Christmas Grinch and so on, so I feel like I have a reasonable enough grasp of the culture, past and present.

> 2015-present: Cloud becomes a big moneymaker

I doubt that. Google is 4th and is trying very very very hard to catchup. Cloud is Google's "Microsoft mobile" moment[1], they let this get past them. It's because they didn't have the correct biz people at the time that first-mover advantage was to be had. Because Google is playing catch-up, they are spending lots and lots of money to catchup. They announced $1bn/quarter in revenue but what is their spend? Their growth rate (not announced) is likely not nearly as good as the top 3 either. The fact that they are being very disingenuous about their pulling out of the DoD bid is telling enough.

I think actually MS is going to win the cloud wars, say in 3 years time. They have a huge advantage.

That said, IMHO (as outsider), Cloud is the best part of google to be in, if you must work there. Besides all the other good points about it, it's not ad revenue driven. Urs is a real ball buster but no one reading this is going to be within a skip level of him anyway.

[1] vs social, which they just botched