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

(qz.com)
581 points antr | 1 comments | 16 Aug 13 12:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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btipling ◴[16 Aug 13 12:41 UTC] No.6223596[source]▶
It probably made more sense to have 20% time when Google didn't have tens of thousands of engineers. When you have a few hundred really smart people all working in the same building back in the early 2000's in Mountain View, it was I imagine a different thing than it would be now.
replies(1): >>6223921 #
1. datasage ◴[16 Aug 13 13:47 UTC] No.6223921[source]▶
I think there may be some truth to this. With a company as large as Google, it may no longer be as beneficial to give everyone 20% time. Instead it's better to take the best engineers (and probably most innovative) and give them 100% time in Google X.