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I am not sure decline is the correct word. Google's choice of direction really bugs me. Scrapping the 20% developer time is fine. Cutting down projects to foc

I am not sure decline is the correct word. Google's choice of direction really bugs me. Scrapping the 20% developer time is fine. Cutting down projects to focus the company on a handful of products is cool. I never used Reader anyway. What is worrying is the way Google is becoming more and more creepy. They have so much information about you and with the increasing rollout of Google+ I feel more and more like I am being stalked. Even when I am not on Google sites their ad's follow me around. It used to be relevant ad's. That was ok. Now I visit the Alienware website and all I see are Alienware banners everywhere I go for the next week. Its freaky. Now Google+ wants to do away with your alias and force you to use your real identity. Why would you ever want to do that? For a while there was a warning "be careful what you put on Facebook, it could get you fired." Google are trying to make that "be careful what you put on the Internet." Perhaps some people will improve the quality of their comments.. I think a far better chance is that someone looking for me will find a 4 year old opinion or me playing devils advocate in an arguement and think I am a bigot, ill-imformed, stupid, whatever as a result.. The fact is that I want my email and my documents to be linked to me and my name. Anything else I would like to be attached to a throwaway name like the one I have on HN. Something I can abandon without worry that my opinions in 2013 will survive as "internet fact" for years to come.

DanBC 13y ago
> Now I visit the Alienware website and all I see are Alienware banners everywhere I go for the next week. Its freaky. You point out a really weird feature of targeted ads. Someone mentions something, I do a websearch for that thing and look at a couple of websites. And then, for weeks afterwards, I get that stuff in my ads. I'm very tolerant of ads (don't run an ad blocker, etc) but I wish there was some better way of guiding what ads I really don't like. An option box for "Please don't ever show me this ad again," with a few reasons would be great.
elastoplast 13y ago
20% time has not been scrapped. This is a recurrent rumour that pops up over and over again. It is not true. There have always been people who felt like they were unable to take it, or it was really 120% time or whatever. I've had a variety of 20% projects for years, and I've never worked 120%. You have to be able to manage your teams and managers expectations, and if you commit to a deadline and fall behind then you're obviously going to have to "bank" that time. If you are in a team or get yourself into a position where you're constantly committing to unrealistic deadlines that have no slack time in them, of course you'll feel like you can't take 20%. But that's not the companies fault. 20% is a great policy. I don't know what else the company could do to make it easier to take really: managers aren't allowed to deny it to you, and you're allowed to bank it up to a reasonable cap if you have to focus on a main project for a while. At that point it's really up to you and your own time management.
- SilkRoadie 13y ago
  Thanks for the clarification. I thought I read a while ago it was being scaled back and you needed approval to get cracking on a 20% project. Either I remember incorrectly or the story was untrue.

DanBC 13y ago

> Now I visit the Alienware website and all I see are Alienware banners everywhere I go for the next week. Its freaky. You point out a really weird feature of targeted ads. Someone mentions something, I do a websearch for that thing and look at a couple of websites. And then, for weeks afterwards, I get that stuff in my ads. I'm very tolerant of ads (don't run an ad blocker, etc) but I wish there was some better way of guiding what ads I really don't like. An option box for "Please don't ever show me this ad again," with a few reasons would be great.

elastoplast 13y ago

20% time has not been scrapped. This is a recurrent rumour that pops up over and over again. It is not true. There have always been people who felt like they were unable to take it, or it was really 120% time or whatever. I've had a variety of 20% projects for years, and I've never worked 120%. You have to be able to manage your teams and managers expectations, and if you commit to a deadline and fall behind then you're obviously going to have to "bank" that time. If you are in a team or get yourself into a position where you're constantly committing to unrealistic deadlines that have no slack time in them, of course you'll feel like you can't take 20%. But that's not the companies fault. 20% is a great policy. I don't know what else the company could do to make it easier to take really: managers aren't allowed to deny it to you, and you're allowed to bank it up to a reasonable cap if you have to focus on a main project for a while. At that point it's really up to you and your own time management.

SilkRoadie 13y ago
Thanks for the clarification. I thought I read a while ago it was being scaled back and you needed approval to get cracking on a 20% project. Either I remember incorrectly or the story was untrue.