Certainly, there are many incredibly talented and passionate programmers there. These people want to make interesting things and many of them want to share them

Certainly, there are many incredibly talented and passionate programmers there. These people want to make interesting things and many of them want to share them with the world. The company has gotten to where it is by being an exciting place to work for these people and supporting their endeavours. But let's not fool ourselves, Google at the end of the day is still an ad company. So while we can appreciate what they've contributed using this approach, we can never ignore the fact that ultimately business priorities will always trump everything else, which means they can use their creations against us on the turn of a dime.