I also think that documentation implies long-term support, and a commitment not to change the expected behavior. Any time you document something, you are telling people that this is not only the way that the software works now, but also the way that you intend it to work in the future. That established intent seems anathema to Google's culture, with the amount of churn and project cancellation that exists.

> I suppose they do this because it makes it easier to change features.

Yeah, and for a scrappy startup trying to achieve feature parity despite having far fewer employees, that might make sense.

But it's not like Google is a nimble startup without the luxury of hiring dedicated technical writers.