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

I think that due to new focus on google+ the company is now less able to adopt new projects, if the new idea does not originate from project management. With google+ all features have to be integrated, so simply there is also less incentive/room for innovation; things that stand out of the google+ user experience must be cut for the sake of consistency;

This tendency is self enforcing: If there is less opportunity for the side project to make it then developers will be less inclined to follow through with the idea.

So as an outside observer I can identify a cycle: less room for innovation breeds less incentive for an individual to come up with initiative. Management sees that its liberalism is besides the point, so free room for initiative is scrapped.

Maybe google can still keep on to a culture of innovation in areas of infrastructure and research, but in a wider sense google+ probably did them in.

Maybe that is the right thing to do: they have enough money to buy any start-up if it looks promising. I don't know which one is more cost effective: exploring ideas in-house or buying out start-ups; however if Google looks like any other ordinary shop then it will be less able to attract top talent. I would guess that the free food is not the winning perk that attracts developers.