

Ask HN: Is it true that Google cut the 20% time for personal projects? - ssn


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kunley
"I don't work for Google but it is so important to know it"

is similar to

"Which one of the top actresses would I want to go to bed more".

The crude but seemingly valid answer to both is: if it was really relevant to
you, you would know anyway :)

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pamelafox
No, not as far as I'm aware (I just launched a 20% project).

Note that 20% time should be used on something that could benefit the company
in some way. Open sourcing a library = good use of 20% time. Building a model
trainset = not good use of 20% time.

Here's a recent blog post from the official Google blog that mentions a cool
use of 20% time: [http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/robot-
hackathon-c...](http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/robot-hackathon-
connects-with-android.html)

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maushu
"benefit the company" is kind of relative. That model trainset might use a
revolutionary system that could help Google if it decides to try
transportation.

~~~
JimboOmega
Which it already has, by way of computer controlled cars.

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curtis
My experience at Google was that 20% time worked on the honor system. I'm not
aware of anybody trying to measure it, nor do I know how you would. That said,
I think most people, most of the time did not take 20% time, so the real
amount of time spent was probably much less than 20% averaged across the
company anyway.

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HackrNwsDesignr
Does anyone know if non-googlers can work on Gmail apps/plug ins? I have some
cool ideas that would benefit a lot of people in their daily email writing.

