AFAIK it still exists. In my several years there, most people didn't take full advantage of it, and that was as true in 2011 as it was in 2020. Most people just

AFAIK it still exists. In my several years there, most people didn't take full advantage of it, and that was as true in 2011 as it was in 2020. Most people just didn't come up with anything a technical project they'd rather work on than their core project. (I was one of those.) I think most who took advantage actually worked on improving and facilitating employee training & learning programs. Google has great internal training material -- mostly for internally-used technologies, but sometimes for external technologies people are curious about too, and also for soft skills, and even not-work-related skills (e.g. fitness classes). Overall I think the 20% resulted in more "community" work than most other companies have, and I think it was a positive for company culture. And for the few people that actually worked on technical projects, the existence of 20% time seemed highly motivating for them.