Google buys Writely, Wastes 20% Time, Continues Crusade To Become Bad Microsoft Clone 1
So Google has purchased Writely and looks to be gearing up to take on Microsoft head on.
I think that this brings up an interesting question, what are all of the Google engineers doing with their vaunted "20% time"? Waiting for for their options to vest? Shouldn't they be building services like this in-house?
On Google's jobs page it says:
Google engineers all have “20 percent time” in which they’re free to pursue projects they’re passionate about. This freedom has already produced Google News, Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut – products which might otherwise have taken an entire start-up to launch.
I don't think that it would be a stretch to say that if any of those were actual start-ups, they probably would be on their last legs by now.
Inside of my head I have an image of a hundred Google engineers working somewhere, spending one day a week working diligently on something that's going to blow us all away. I hope that's what's happening, although I'm fairly certain that it's not.
Ah well, at least they're rich.
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Google announced today that it acquired Writely, a “collaborative” word processor that sits in a web browser. I’m on the waiting list. [Fingers tapping…] This guy is a bit snarky about the whole thing, asking why it was develop....
20% free time is nice idea open-minded engineers won't waste whole 20% to browsing porn, I think that google management knows that they work on somethong that could become usable later.