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Area 120 – A workshop for Google's experimental products
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- theWatcher37 9y agoI love that those guys working on the machine-learning haircut robot are so willing to eat their own dogfood. It's still got a ways to go before it's believable but I can see the potential.
- harrumph 9y ago>I love that those guys working on the machine-learning haircut robot are so willing to eat their own dogfood. I sure wish I hadn't been drinking water when I read this.
- myroon5 9y agoIs this a joke? I don't see anything about this on this webpage. I'd like to read more if this is serious.
- _wmd 9y ago2011: "more wood behind fewer arrows! Let's kill Labs" 2017: "argh! the wood is running away!! Let's resurrect Labs"
- oh_sigh 9y agoCan't believe this wasn't leaked...years ago?
- kyrra 9y agoIt was a year ago. https://www.recode.net/2016/5/20/11718792/google-120-area-incubator https://www.recode.net/2016/5/20/11718792/google-120-area-in...
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- ianai 9y agoDoes this mean open access outside of google or something?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- p0rkbelly 9y agoseems cool. But, in true Google style, has that whole "Let's stroke our profound selves off first" element to it.
- Lazare 9y agoSo this gives people the opportunity to try Google products... ...that are even more likely to to be cancelled without warning than normal Google products? I'm positively quivering with anticipation.
- paulddraper 9y agoI liked Gmail labs' stuff. And some of it got incorporated into Gmail proper (and later inbox). I for one was grateful for the "experimental" things I got the opportunity to use, e.g. cancel after send.
- Lazare 9y agoThe thing about Gmail labs is they are (mostly) extra features that you could use or not, and which didn't leave you worse off than if you'd never used them if you started and then they were killed off Fully fledged products have more risk. And I've felt burned by multiple Google products in the past. Let's say the first product announced by Area 120 turns out to be a great new chat app. Would you recommend your friends all download it and start using it? :) Edit: Confused Google Labs and Gmail labs, my bad. Removed nonsensical comment.
- tempestn 9y agoAre you speaking of labs being killed off in the hypothetical? As far as I can tell, it's still there...
- Lazare 9y agoI was thinking of Google Labs I guess, brain fart. Edited my comment. :(
- hrrsn 9y ago>Let's say the first product announced by Area 120 turns out to be a great new chat app. That's exactly what Google has been missing all these years: a chat app.
- influx 9y agoIs this a parody? ("Google") which is focused on launching experimental products which are iterated quickly, and which may be discontinued at any time. No, really?
- tempodox 9y agoI would think it's an accurate description.
- slackingoff2017 9y agoTranslation: Too many Googlers leave and go on to start their own companies. We're creating a playground where they can explore their ideas and we can keep the profits, as it should be.
- mmastrac 9y agoGoogle pays well. Why not take the opportunity to swing for the fences without taking personal financial risk?
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- mythz 9y agoBecause you'll forfeit your reward or upside for working hard on executing your idea, worse if it's successful where Google owns your IP and starts productizing it you've killed your opportunity to go start your own company around it.
- tempestn 9y agoBut if you're not interested in starting a company, and instead want to work on interesting things while being paid very well, it sounds pretty good.
- mythz 9y agoYour pay remains the same regardless. If you're not interested in any financial gain, sure it can be more enjoyable to spend your work hours on your own idea inside Google's cushy offices.
- themacguffinman 9y agoThat's a strange assumption. I would think that any employee who pioneers a successful idea will land a leading role in the subsequent product development team and a bonus at least. Sure, the reward isn't as high as if you spun off your own startup but it won't be nothing.
- rattray 9y agoThere's something about this that makes me never want to work at Google. I can't quite put my finger on what it is.
- edoceo 9y agoYou can play on your own cool ideas while working here, but we own all the ideas and upside.
- maxwin 9y agoThat is still much better than a code monkey who is managed and told exactly what to do.
- taneq 9y agoWould you rather sell hours of your life, or sell your dreams?
- nathcd 9y agoGoogle's not forcing employees to pursue every one of their side projects on 20% time, only giving them the option. They're still just as free as any of us plebs to leave and own their code.
- Nition 9y agoGetting paid well to work on whatever project you want is a pretty nice dream.
- WalterSear 9y agoIf the alternative hinges on the odds of realizing those dreams successfully via the current startup ecosphere (and not getting fleeced by financial backers), I'd sell them. I'll always have plenty more where they came from.
- edoceo 9y agoAgree but, there is a happier place between these to points. Like, I give my people time off for their projects, I help with mentorship, would help them go farther if needed. Let them own their ideas. My objective as an employer isn't to extract all the value I can from an employee.
- johnpowell 9y agoI tried twice scrolling down that page and couldn't manage to read more than ten actual words. I think my eyes tried to escape my body in revolt.
- masor 9y agoThis is the most Hooli thing ever.
- skraelingjar 9y agoShut up Dinesh.
- jboggan 9y agoDo you want more messaging apps? This is how you get more messaging apps. The main appeal for Googlers is that participating in Area 120 gets you out of doing Perf for an entire cycle. That's actually pretty huge. When this was first unveiled internally I don't recall anyone saying this was more attractive than just leaving and creating your own startup. It never even crossed my mind when I decided to leave and start a new project, I can't understand what the upside would be.
- WWKong 9y ago"...What the upside would be" A very low risk great shot at potentially leading a Google product and all the associated upsides?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lwansbrough 9y agoExcept, you know, owning it.
- chrisco255 9y agoWhat is "doing Perf" and how long is a cycle?
- jacoblambda 9y agoI imagine it means performance reviews
- kajecounterhack 9y agoPerformance Review. A cycle is 6 months.
- ianai 9y agoim thinking they tend toward projects that aren't big enough to be their own thing. Ie a new feature to a project they're already working on internally. Or as a way to work on a project in another part of the company from your immediate. Both could be ways to move up/over within the company.
- guiscreenshots 9y agoI couldn't spend more than 10 seconds attempting to read that website, what with all of the colorful shapes rushing this way and that. How did we get back here in web design? It truly boggles the mind.
- manmal 9y agoI was wondering what style they want to achieve with that.. is that swiss? Or even brutalist?
- JoshMnem 9y agoIt's called Material Design, and it keeps getting worse. (unrestrained animation, oversaturated colors)
- gibsjose 9y agoNot only that, but it took a solid minute of frustrated tapping to successfully hit the 'I agree' checkbox. Using chrome on iOS.
- paulie_a 9y agoEven on a quick scroll down/up it kept re-animating. The person that decided that was a solid design idea should straight up feel bad. I avidly utilize extensions to block annoying crap like that, is there anything to disable that sort of "feature"
- onion2k 9y agoWhat's really annoying is that most browsers actually support an accessibility feature called "prefers-reduced-motion"[1] in CSS media queries to tell a site not to do this sort of thing, but Google don't appear to use it. [1] https://css-tricks.com/introduction-reduced-motion-media-query/ https://css-tricks.com/introduction-reduced-motion-media-que...
- JoshMnem 9y agoThanks for that link. For years, I've been arguing that animation is an accessibility issue, but the situation keeps getting worse. I hope that there is a way to enable that on Linux and Android.
- DrNuke 9y agoAds optimization as the reason for life.
- daxfohl 9y agoIs the guy on the rhs of the 2nd photo of the slideshow working on an invisible computer? One would think that'd be the highlight.
- H4CK3RM4N 9y agoHe also has his right hand in his lap, and nobody opposite him. No idea what he's supposed to be doing. https://area120.google.com/static/images/home/hi/Home_3_image_2.jpg https://area120.google.com/static/images/home/hi/Home_3_imag...
- daxfohl 9y agoSure, make an area120 account github and we'll follow it.
- adamnemecek 9y agoHow delightfully vague.
- daxfohl 9y agoIf you put floating/moving photo filters on a page, at least let users drag them at will. The lack of control on this page is driving me nuts.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dmamills 9y agogoogle releases a dumb marketing site, fun!
- tdicola 9y agoCan someone at Area 120 make bringing back Google Reader a thing? I'm serious.
- rdl 9y agoWhy would a Googler do A120 vs. leaving and doing a startup and potentially quick-sale back to Google? (I guess access to Google infrastructure could be worth it for some projects, and for people who have large stock grants who want to vest them out for another 6-12mo before leaving)
- jsolson 9y agoRisk. Area 120 has bounded reward, but the downside risk is measured entirely in opportunity cost. If your goal is a quick sale, the upsides may be comparable as well.
- dang 9y agoThis is just a sign-up page? That's not a substantive submission for HN. Here it's better to wait until a thing is actually available. (It also unleashes the hounds of snark, as seen below.)
- grizzles 9y agoI'll throw out a lament. I wish Google had released that Robot Arm they built that could lift >10kg payloads. When I heard about it I was throwing money at the screen and wondering why nothing happened.
- xbmcuser 9y agoThe assumption many have here is that all people build startups to get rich well truthfully thats what American start up scene has become. Reality is that most successful startups are not about making billions but solving a problem or multiple problems some people make a lot money solving those problems but most don't. Having a chance at solving a problem without bankrupting yourself and your family would be a good opportunity for many.