> Nearly every Google technology you know (maps, earth, gmail) started out as somebody's 20% project, I think. "Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program deve

> Nearly every Google technology you know (maps, earth, gmail) started out as somebody's 20% project, I think. "Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google, which converted it into a web application." "In 2004 Google bought Keyhole Inc., which was partially funded by the Central Intelligence Agency's venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel. Keyhole had developed an online mapping service that Google rebranded in 2005 as Google Earth." "Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit, who had already explored the idea of web-based email in the 1990s, before the launch of Hotmail, while working on a personal email software project as a college student. Buchheit began his work on Gmail in August 2001."