Can't reply to him so I'll reply to myself. Where is the evidence of innovation? If Google is doing such a great job of innovating, why do they buy companies instead of spending their hoard of cash to innovate from within?
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The article lists some of the bigger successes from the APM program. There's also a lot of smaller ones you'll never hear about.
Strategies for innovation don't have to be mutually exclusive. Google has decided talent acquisitions are one way to continue innovation. They've also decided the APM program is another, which is why it continues to this day.
Google's blessing is that it has a naturally large audience for showing new features/products. Its curse is that innovation has to be planned more carefully, both from a technical and a product point of view. That's where APMs do really well.
