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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: 0s | source
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winter_blue ◴[16 Aug 13 13:38 UTC] No.6223899[source]▶
> Six months after he took the reins, Page announced that Google would adopt a “more wood behind fewer arrows” strategy that would put more of Google’s resources and employees behind a smaller number of projects. This meant killing off Google Labs, which had previously been Google’s showcase for its experimental projects—many of them products of employees’ 20% time.

Guess who advised Larry Page to focus on a small number of projects? Steve Jobs.[1] It seems like Larry's acceptance of Jobs' advice has sabotaged Google. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but one does wonder if this was Jobs' secret intention.

[1] See the second quote in: http://www.edibleapple.com/2011/10/22/steve-jobs-advice-to-l...

replies(2): >>6224131 #>>6224734 #
1. snowwrestler ◴[16 Aug 13 15:50 UTC] No.6224734[source]▶
I think it lines up with how Jobs ran Apple. He killed a ton of "blue sky" research projects after he took over as CEO, and Apple under his leadership spent a lot less on research than Microsoft or Google.