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This is obviously untrue because we know that Google does write significant portions of its backend in Go and that Google derives ~0% of its revenue from Go (th

This is obviously untrue because we know that Google does write significant portions of its backend in Go and that Google derives ~0% of its revenue from Go (the very definition of a side project). My guess is that you're assuming that a side project for Google is the same as a side project for a lone developer or a small team, which is (pretty obviously, IMHO) untrue.

monocasa 4y ago
> that Google derives ~0% of its revenue from Go AdWords is mainly written in Go. YoutTube is mainly written in Go. Just because they have strategic reasons for not directly monetizing Go doesn't make it a side project more than any other internal tooling. It's core to their ability to pull in revenue now. If they were somehow immediately deprived access to Go, the company would go under. That's how you know it's not a side project.
- throwaway894345 4y ago
  > AdWords is mainly written in Go. YoutTube is mainly written in Go Can you source these claims? Last I checked, YouTube was primarily written in Python, and I doubt that's changed dramatically in the intervening years given the size of YouTube. I assume there's some similar thing going on for AdWords. > Just because they have strategic reasons for not directly monetizing Go doesn't make it a side project more than any other internal tooling. Agreed, but all internal tooling is a side project pretty much by definition. > It's core to their ability to pull in revenue now. No, it's just the thing that they implemented some of their systems in. I'm a big Go fan, but they could absolutely ship software in other languages for a marginal increased operational overhead. > If they were somehow immediately deprived access to Go, the company would go under. That's how you know it's not a side project. I don't know what it means to be "deprived access to Go", but this is a pretty absurd definition of "side project" since it applies to just about everything Google does and a good chunk of the software Google depends on whether first party or third party (Google depends much more strongly on the Linux Kernel; that doesn't mean contributing to the Linux Kernel is Google's primary business activity). It seems you have a bizarre definition of "side project" which hinges on whether or not a business can back out of a given technology on a literal moment's notice irrespective of how likely it is that said technology becomes unavailable on that sort of timeline, and that these unusual semantics are at the root of our disagreement.

monocasa 4y ago

> that Google derives ~0% of its revenue from Go AdWords is mainly written in Go. YoutTube is mainly written in Go. Just because they have strategic reasons for not directly monetizing Go doesn't make it a side project more than any other internal tooling. It's core to their ability to pull in revenue now. If they were somehow immediately deprived access to Go, the company would go under. That's how you know it's not a side project.

throwaway894345 4y ago
> AdWords is mainly written in Go. YoutTube is mainly written in Go Can you source these claims? Last I checked, YouTube was primarily written in Python, and I doubt that's changed dramatically in the intervening years given the size of YouTube. I assume there's some similar thing going on for AdWords. > Just because they have strategic reasons for not directly monetizing Go doesn't make it a side project more than any other internal tooling. Agreed, but all internal tooling is a side project pretty much by definition. > It's core to their ability to pull in revenue now. No, it's just the thing that they implemented some of their systems in. I'm a big Go fan, but they could absolutely ship software in other languages for a marginal increased operational overhead. > If they were somehow immediately deprived access to Go, the company would go under. That's how you know it's not a side project. I don't know what it means to be "deprived access to Go", but this is a pretty absurd definition of "side project" since it applies to just about everything Google does and a good chunk of the software Google depends on whether first party or third party (Google depends much more strongly on the Linux Kernel; that doesn't mean contributing to the Linux Kernel is Google's primary business activity). It seems you have a bizarre definition of "side project" which hinges on whether or not a business can back out of a given technology on a literal moment's notice irrespective of how likely it is that said technology becomes unavailable on that sort of timeline, and that these unusual semantics are at the root of our disagreement.