Google is not really a search company. It's a machine-learning company. It wants to be seen that way, but until it abolishes closed allocation (and maybe it ha

Google is not really a search company. It's a machine-learning company. It wants to be seen that way, but until it abolishes closed allocation (and maybe it has, but I haven't heard anything to indicate that it has) it will just be an ads company. It's still a pretty good place to work, by industry standards, but the percentage of people who'll get to work on machine learning is very low. Google definitely wants to have the image of being the machine learning company because that's a great way to attract talent (even if that talent is mostly wasted under closed allocation). And if you land in the right place, there is interesting work. The reality most people face, though, is that most people (especially outside of Mt. View) aren't going to get real projects and won't be anywhere near the machine learning work. Google does have a lot of talent and probably would be the undisputed #1 tech company if it implemented open allocation, though.