I agree, but these ideas come to fruit, mainly b/c there are a lot of smart people working at google and keep the mediocre factor low.<p>In any big company, as soon you get few idiots as managers, they will start hiring even bigger idiots, lowering productivity, increasing political b.s and chronyism -which tends to kill inovation from below. Most decissions are done in upper management level, from people with fancy titles as VPs of something, who often are disascotiated from reality and the user base, or favorise poor ideas and products b/c it suits better their career. In these companies, where Top down level approach of management exists, the engnieers take a back seat.<p>At google, despite its large size, it still manages to have a bottom up aproach to new products and ideas.
Google seems to have a Darwinian approach to innovation. Perhaps it works. These success stories are the ones that thrived and made it to the next generation. It's nice to hear for every Google News there is unmentionable projects. I wonder if Google has a technical caste system similar to MSFT.