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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: 0.206s | source
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levosmetalo ◴[16 Aug 13 15:23 UTC] No.6224514[source]▶
Did that 20% time actually bring anything useful at Google, or it's just a myth?

IIRC, both Gmail and AdSense mentioned in the title didn't come to Google as 20% byproducts, but as acquisitions.

Does anyone know of any popular (by Google standards) product that started that way?

replies(1): >>6225953 #
guyzero ◴[16 Aug 13 18:45 UTC] No.6225953[source]▶
Transit directions on Maps started as a 20% project.
replies(1): >>6226447 #
levosmetalo ◴[16 Aug 13 20:04 UTC] No.6226447[source]▶
It's just one single feature of one of the projects. If that's the poster child of 20% projects then that's good enough reason to ditch them.
replies(2): >>6226893 #>>6227156 #
1. Matt_Cutts ◴[16 Aug 13 22:44 UTC] No.6227156[source]▶
Transit directions have been a big reason why some people prefer Google Maps to (say) Apple's maps. In places like New York or Tokyo, it's a huge win for users. It's also spawned an open specification (Google Transit Feed Specification) that has sparked a ton of innovation in the public transit space, including real-time location updates from public transit authorities.

Full disclosure: one of the big leaders of the Google Transit project was Avichal Garg, who was a PM for the webspam team when he ramped up Google Transit in his 20% time.