According to Twitter (currently known as X), all is not well down at Google. While the search engine continues to pump out great numbers, the launch of Gemini has been poor, and people continue to moan about YouTube. The company continues to ditch products (some of which are popular); according to this website, they’re almost at 300 such executions.
A term I came across in my research was “eat your own dog food”; essentially, you need to use your own products. In the Google office, it isn’t uncommon for people to use iPhones and Apple Watches, and leave their Google Pixel’s and Pebbles largely untouched.
One comment really struck me. He was a past Google employee (a Xoogler) and his explanation wasn’t “wokeness” or WFH, but how the company had essentially become a tech retirement village. The idea was to create a School of Athens, where you could take extremely talented people, pay them large sums, create beautiful offices and amenities, and provide a low stress environment. This utopian setting was designed to be a hot bed for masterpieces.
There have certainly been plenty of them, but the Xoogler remarked how many staff members spend an enormous amount of time doing yoga, having walking chats, napping, and of course, complaining about the world class food that was available 24/7, completely free.
It’s an interesting hypothesis, but I don’t have any hard facts to back it up. For now, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, continues to shine.