> a) what would you have them work on? This exactly. A stock buyback combined with layoffs are a signal that Google doesn't have enough good ideas to work on.

> a) what would you have them work on? This exactly. A stock buyback combined with layoffs are a signal that Google doesn't have enough good ideas to work on. Google thinks the money is just better spent being given back to investors. This is very different than the Google 10 years ago, which was arguably throwing minds/money at bad ideas.