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

Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by deelowe on Friday August 16, 2013 @09:51AM (#6223943)
I don't think the decision had anything to do with money. It's part of the whole "more wood behind fewer arrows" initiative. Essentially, a defrag. 20% time was seen as having created too much fragmentation with little benefit. Gmail was the only major success to come from the program. Also, Google has a separate team for working on skunk works style projects.
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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by Shooti on Friday August 16, 2013 @12:01PM (#6224828)
Google Now: http://memeburn.com/2013/03/from-a-20-project-to-googles-fut...

If IO 13 is to be believed its become an essential pillar of their current vision/roadmap for search (Answer, Converse, Anticipate).

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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by deelowe on Friday August 16, 2013 @02:36PM (#6225897)
Did not know about now. Thanks.
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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by samatman on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:53AM (#6224331)
Metaphor is not reality, but that metaphor is terrible. I'm an archer: you want as many arrows as fit in the quiver, and as far as more wood, well, we've switched to carbon fiber shafts for a reason. When you shoot an arrow, velocity gets you to your target, and velocity penetrates it too. Extra weight is a literal drag.
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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by DigitalJack on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:58AM (#6224357)
Go the other way. You could have 500 arrows made with toothpicks or 5 traditionals.
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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by samatman on Friday August 16, 2013 @12:54PM (#6225191)
Our modern "arrow" is essentially a field point expelled via explosion at incredible velocity.

It's a bad metaphor.

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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by voidlogic on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:56AM (#6224346)
>Gmail was the only major success to come from the program.

Adsense, Go? I'm sure there are others too...

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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by deelowe on Friday August 16, 2013 @02:36PM (#6225901)
I don't think adsense has done very well. Does Go generate revenue?
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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by mattw1810 on Friday August 16, 2013 @03:23PM (#6226195)
While Go doesn't directly generate any revenue, it's probably not without reason that Google is rewriting some important pieces (dl.google.com for example) in Go. I can imagine their engineers being much more expressive in Go than in C++, causing them to spend less time on writing the code as well as resulting in simpler code (easier to comprehend and maintain, so less time/money spent on maintenance). This doesn't generate revenue but it does optimize development processes, which could indirectly save them some money.
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