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From the outside, as a mere user of Google's services, it seems like unless you're working on something like Chrome OS, the most/best you can do as a developer

From the outside, as a mere user of Google's services, it seems like unless you're working on something like Chrome OS, the most/best you can do as a developer is make sure nothing breaks. What are the biggest stories you read about Gmail? At Facebook on the other hand, virtually any internal project could change, well, everything. There's an excitement to that which Google can't/won't offer. Facebook's business is change; all they think about all day is how to change things. Google has a vested interest in things staying the same (again, with the exception of Chrome OS). Maybe the coding challenges Google faces just don't have the sex appeal Facebook's have. Maybe the "slowing down" they say Google is going through isn't about size or the limitations that come with. Maybe Google's just not as cutting-edge, not as thrilling as it once was. Maybe working for Zuckerberg and his 500 million closest friends, changing the way we communicate, and with a chance at being part of something revolutionary, is now most thrilling thing out there. Maybe by a lot.

hyperbovine 16y ago
I seem to have taken the same set of facts and arrived at the complete opposite conclusion from you. Facebook is sitting on one of the most popular, trafficked web sites in history and what have they given us: IM, photo sharing, a Twitter clone, a FourSquare clone, a social bookmarking knockoff, and now, wait for it ... e-mail!! "A chance at being part of something revolutionary" ... talk about understatement. Say what you will about Google, they have failed at more original concepts over the past couple years than Facebook has attempted over the course of its entire existence.
adambyrtek 16y ago
I think you got it backwards. Sure, maybe Gmail didn't change that much over the years, but the pace at which Google is iterating and innovating is still impressive. Some of new products fail and many are not as visible as established services like Gmail, but they are still not afraid to take the risk and challenge their programmers. It may be less visible because Google is more decoupled, consisting of a number of more or less interconnected services, in contrast to the monolithic Facebook. Finally I haven't heard about any autonomous vehicles coming from Facebook :)

hyperbovine 16y ago

I seem to have taken the same set of facts and arrived at the complete opposite conclusion from you. Facebook is sitting on one of the most popular, trafficked web sites in history and what have they given us: IM, photo sharing, a Twitter clone, a FourSquare clone, a social bookmarking knockoff, and now, wait for it ... e-mail!! "A chance at being part of something revolutionary" ... talk about understatement. Say what you will about Google, they have failed at more original concepts over the past couple years than Facebook has attempted over the course of its entire existence.

adambyrtek 16y ago

I think you got it backwards. Sure, maybe Gmail didn't change that much over the years, but the pace at which Google is iterating and innovating is still impressive. Some of new products fail and many are not as visible as established services like Gmail, but they are still not afraid to take the risk and challenge their programmers. It may be less visible because Google is more decoupled, consisting of a number of more or less interconnected services, in contrast to the monolithic Facebook. Finally I haven't heard about any autonomous vehicles coming from Facebook :)