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A comment on Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet. Parent comment

Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by chubot on Friday June 09, 2023 @12:48AM (#36253308)
From 2012, to 2016, to 2020, google bled an incredible amount of key talent

I think that was kinda known in the valley, but not sure any media really covered it

Honestly a lot of the blame goes to Larry Page for turning the company toward G+, pushing top people toward Gundotra, the product failing quite badly, and Larry stepping back as CEO

My view of Eric Schmidt is pretty neutral, but it was a little weird how Larry pushed him aside and ushered Sundar in, then formed Alphabet, etc

This was very chaotic and people got used to neglecting things like search quality and spam in that time

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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by HWR_14 on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:06AM (#36253457)
G+ wasn't a bad product, but it's hard for me to conceive of a worse rollout plan.
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by eitland on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:46AM (#36253777)
Google+ is still the best social network that the world has seen.

But, yes, from what I understand they could hardly have botched it more if they tried.

I'm thinking of details like using the opportunity to latch onto Facebooks "Real Name policy", and using the same name as their deeply unpopular single sign-on solution + killing their existing social network at the same time.

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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by danielrpa on Friday June 09, 2023 @07:05AM (#36256065)
There was no reason for the average user to switch from Facebook. Arguably, it was worse than Facebook due to poor UI: I could never make my wife understand the value of circles, it was simply not the way she thinks about her contacts.
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by xnx on Friday June 09, 2023 @08:21AM (#36256745)
No ads was nice
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by lern_too_spel on Friday June 09, 2023 @12:57AM (#36253385)
Google management has always been incompetent. It's just that now that economic conditions have forced them to make more drastic decisions that their incompetence is even more obvious.
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by code_biologist on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:06AM (#36253461)
Eric Schmidt seemed very competent, given how much of the famed old Google culture was built during his tenure. I was at Google during the Larry Page era and contrasting him with Schmidt was not favorable.
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by lokar on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:34AM (#36253682)
All the early Eng VPs were also great
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by gumby on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:05AM (#36253454)
Actually I think Schmidt was quite good. Sadly he's the only CEO the company has ever had.
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by eftychis on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:10AM (#36253497)
And Schmidt was forced on them.
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Re:Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a milli... by gumby on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:14AM (#36253525)
Yeah, I'd never heard of investors threatening to take their money back, either before or since. I've never had such a clause in any financing docs I've signed.
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