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If I recoup with latest news: The ranking algorithm is in one repo, Chrome and Android in another, and all the rest is in Piper? What is all the rest? Gmail, Ca

by tajen 11y ago

If I recoup with latest news: The ranking algorithm is in one repo, Chrome and Android in another, and all the rest is in Piper? What is all the rest? Gmail, Calendar, the defunct Reader, the car, Maps, and OnHub... How does that fit with Alphabet? Is Piper a cross-functional initiative of Alphabet now?

kyrra 11y ago
Look at the companies that are non-Google entities (the ones under Alphabet that aren't under Google): * Google X - moonshot projects that aren't software centric. * Google Fiber - mainly a infrstructure setup. May share some stuff in piper. * Google Ventures - investment arm, not code related. * Google Capital - more investment stuff. * Calico - R&D for biotech. Anything that would be software centric will probably still live under Google inc. As well, you are forgetting so many products that Google has. There are various lists of them out there [0][1]. [0] http://www.google.com/about/products/ http://www.google.com/about/products/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products
- QuercusMax 11y ago
  Don't forget Google Life Sciences -- we have lots of software. (The team I'm on is 100% software, and we're around 25 people split among 3 sub-teams.) All our code is in piper, and depends heavily on the rest of the google infrastructure.
  - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
    Is Google going to split this out of their infrastructure, or is this whole separation between "Alphabet" companies and "Google" really just a marketing ploy for no change at all?
    - QuercusMax 11y ago
      At least as far as Google Life Sciences is concerned, there are multiple reasons that are known internally (at least within GLS) that I cannot comment on at this time. An astute observer may be able to come up with some plausible reasons (at least for GLS) as to why such an arrangement would be desirable. As far as splitting up the infrastructure, we're still going to depend on Google infrastructure and use their services where it makes sense.
packetslave 11y ago
The ranking algorithm (and other restricted stuff) is in Piper, but locked down as to who can browse it, check it out, etc. There's some magic in the build system that lets you compile/link against it without needing to see it.
- thrownaway2424 11y ago
  There is considerable magic of that kind, actually, because the build system has to be able to prevent insufficiently-entitled engineers from being able to back out the protected source code, while still allowing the program depending on the protected code to be built, linked, and debugged.
- jamiechong 11y ago
  Who writes the magic (Piper)? Are these engineers essentially super admins?

by tajen 11y ago

kyrra 11y ago

Look at the companies that are non-Google entities (the ones under Alphabet that aren't under Google): * Google X - moonshot projects that aren't software centric. * Google Fiber - mainly a infrstructure setup. May share some stuff in piper. * Google Ventures - investment arm, not code related. * Google Capital - more investment stuff. * Calico - R&D for biotech. Anything that would be software centric will probably still live under Google inc. As well, you are forgetting so many products that Google has. There are various lists of them out there [0][1]. [0] http://www.google.com/about/products/ http://www.google.com/about/products/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

QuercusMax 11y ago
Don't forget Google Life Sciences -- we have lots of software. (The team I'm on is 100% software, and we're around 25 people split among 3 sub-teams.) All our code is in piper, and depends heavily on the rest of the google infrastructure.
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  Is Google going to split this out of their infrastructure, or is this whole separation between "Alphabet" companies and "Google" really just a marketing ploy for no change at all?
  - QuercusMax 11y ago
    At least as far as Google Life Sciences is concerned, there are multiple reasons that are known internally (at least within GLS) that I cannot comment on at this time. An astute observer may be able to come up with some plausible reasons (at least for GLS) as to why such an arrangement would be desirable. As far as splitting up the infrastructure, we're still going to depend on Google infrastructure and use their services where it makes sense.

packetslave 11y ago

The ranking algorithm (and other restricted stuff) is in Piper, but locked down as to who can browse it, check it out, etc. There's some magic in the build system that lets you compile/link against it without needing to see it.

thrownaway2424 11y ago
There is considerable magic of that kind, actually, because the build system has to be able to prevent insufficiently-entitled engineers from being able to back out the protected source code, while still allowing the program depending on the protected code to be built, linked, and debugged.
jamiechong 11y ago
Who writes the magic (Piper)? Are these engineers essentially super admins?