From what I've heard from people who work at Google, the environment there is one where there are tons of projects ongoing but seemingly little long-term dedication/passion in making these products successful.<p>Employees do what's in their job description but don't go above and beyond because they don't know if the project is going to be continued to be supported by upper management. Its a self-fulfillng feeling of inevitable failure. My impression is that management needs to have better vision and commitment other than "let's throw everything half-hearted at the wall and see what may miraculously stick".<p>However, Google is still the king of search and making gobs of money - at least they're still doing the biggest and most important part of their products right.