As far as I can see from the outside, Google is much like any other Java/Web 2.0 cube farm: miserable salt-mine drudgery - though with above-average pay, plush armchairs, and free lunches.
Here is what one notable Google escapee had to say after doing his time:
"The interchangeable component model of software engineers seemed to work reasonably well there. It's just not a business model in which I wish to be involved, at least not on the component-provider side. So after a year at Google I quit and returned to JPL."
