londrum - 10:14 am on Dec 10, 2012 (gmt 0)

With no real benefit to the company? Uh, Panda (and a number of other things) started as a 20% time project ... But Panda's just one of the most influential/important pieces of their algo today, so it has no real benefit to the company, right? Er, uh, maybe the guy who's making the statements knows more about the situation and what was lost with the changes than those who are thinking he's just whining? IDK, but I do know I've read about some major innovations coming from 20% time projects, so to say there was no real benefit to the company from it isn't even close to accurate. In fact it sounds rather uninformed...

yeah but new algos would be developed anyway, as a matter of course, it doesn't need 20% freetime. someone mentioned two more examples earlier -- chrome and email. two more things that google would likely have developed regardless of there being 20% freetime. a browser and email are not exactly earth-shattering ideas.
why should a company pay thousands of its employees 20% freetime, when they could just get them to work on it anyway? its a waste of money.