Report: Google Developing New 'Area 120' Corporate Incubator

An anonymous reader writes: The Information has released a new report about how Google is developing its own "startup incubator" called "Area 120." According to sources, the incubator will be helmed by Google executives Don Harrison and Bradley Horowitz. The way it will work is teams of Google employees will pitch their ideas for inclusion in Area 120. If a team's idea is approved, they will then be able to work full-time on their idea, and eventually start a new company after the business plan is created. The timing is unclear but the whole process will likely take several months. According to The Next Web, "The '120' in Area 120 is a homage to Google's famed '20 percent time,' which asks that employees spend one-fifth of their working hours on projects that excite them." Both Gmail and AdSense were a result of Google's 20 percent time workplace philosophy. The report claims Area 120 will be tied exclusively to Google, not its parent company, Alphabet. It also says it will remain separate from Google's Mountain View campus.

Huh?

[liqu1d]

Adsense was a side project? I thought this was how Google made most of its money.

Re:Huh?

[Dutch Gun]

Remember, Google was just a search engine to start with. And obviously, successful side projects don't stay side projects.

Re: Huh?

[liqu1d]

For some reason I thought they were always monetised with ads. A rather successful side project in that case!

Re:

[Shawn Willden]

For some reason I thought they were always monetised with ads. A rather successful side project in that case!

According to "In the Plex" by Steven Levy, even after Google moved off of the Stanford campus it wasn't monetized at all for the first year or two. It was supported by capital investments, and operated on a shoestring budget to keep those low. Page and Brin knew they needed to find a way to make it profitable, but had a hard time finding an approach they liked. They were strongly opposed to advertising, mostly because they found the dominant model of web advertising at the time (banner ads) to be really obn

Re:

[sexconker]

Disclosure/disclaimer: I'm a Google engineer.

You're a Google employee.

Re:

[just another AC]

Disclosure/disclaimer: I'm a Google engineer.

You're a Google employee.

How do you know he/she doesn't specialise in "engineering Googles"?

Re:

[Shawn Willden]

Disclosure/disclaimer: I'm a Google engineer.

You're a Google employee.

Yes, I'm a Google employee and I'm an engineer, so I'm a Google engineer. A Google Senior Software Engineer, to be precise.

120?!

[Gravis Zero]

HOLY CRAP! It's not a literal incubator! Turn on the air conditioning!!!

Let's not forget about Area 51...

[__aaclcg7560]

When I worked at the Google help desk in 2008, one of the old timers who trained the new staff members told us about Area 51, which was also called Building 51 on some of the older campus maps. That was the nickname for the Sports Page sports bar off of Shoreline Boulevard at the far edge of the campus. I was told then that Molly Magees Irish pub in downtown Mountain View was the go to spot for Goolgers at that time, but they had to be careful not to discuss business as Yahooers also hung out there.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

When I worked at NEC back in the 1990's "Conference room 12" was the bar down the street from the office. It was actually in the conference room reservation system and we would set up meetings in Conference room 12. lol

Re:

[dgatwood]

At Apple, IL7 means BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse out front. I'm told that it used to mean the Peppermill back in the day.

Re:

[Shawn Willden]

In the Boulder, Colorado Google office we took a different approach: We built a couple of bars in the office, right next to the cubes. Yes, they are schedulable meeting rooms, as are the teepee and the VW micro bus. I think the bars got scheduled a lot more than the other "non-traditional" meeting rooms, though.

Lack of math skills

[DesertNomad]

Spend 20% of your time doing what excites you! (As long as it doesn't impact the 100% we pay you for...)

420

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not Area 420

Makes sense

[inode_buddha]

Makes sense. If corporations are people too, then they can have pussies to hatch out baby corps.

We've seen it before. It goes like this:

[technosaurus]

AREA_120 ->(project builds a user base)-> AREA_404_NOT_FOUND

Re:

[Shawn Willden]

AREA_120 ->(project builds a small user base)-> AREA_404_NOT_FOUND

FTFY. If the user base in question is measured in hundreds of millions, it stays and grows. If it's small, and it becomes clear it's not going to grow, and it isn't profitable at the small scale, and it doesn't have any strong internal champions (which generally becomes the case if it's small, not growing and not profitable), it gets shut down, generally with a generous lead time, plenty of opportunity for users to extract their data and only after all contractual commitments (if any) are fulfilled.

Of cou

Re:

[technosaurus]

Google Real Estate on Maps (for 1 example) _could_ have been quite profitable - AFAICT, no tool compares to it still. Things at Google tend to get shut down before they've had time to succeed (they never really advertised the real estate side of Maps). Completely shutting things down, instead of just putting them in a maintenance only mode, erodes trust with users that have integrated the tech into their lives and developers that made it possible with the work the put into interfacing with the API. I no

Re:

[Shawn Willden]

Google Real Estate on Maps (for 1 example) _could_ have been quite profitable - AFAICT, no tool compares to it still. Things at Google tend to get shut down before they've had time to succeed (they never really advertised the real estate side of Maps).

Google never really advertised *anything*, until fairly recently. That was one of the implicit criteria for success... a project had to be good enough to succeed without advertising.

That said, I actually agree with you that Google projects often get shut down before they've had time to succeed. Other companies would stick with them for longer, but Google demands explosive success. I also agree that Google needs to support its APIs better and longer. I think a lot of that API instability is spillover from

Math

[Livius]

Shouldn't it be Area 125?

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

I always heard the joke that the famed 20% time had changed into 120% time. I.e. it changed from the old 20% time you're allowed to spend a day a week working on random stuff, provided you work 5 full days on your normal stuff.

Seen this shit before

[Anonymous Coward]

Large companies try this every so often. If you have a good business idea then you're allowed to work on it full time for your current salary, but you'll be expected to put in the hours of a CEO in order to make the business work. If the business is successful, you get to go back to your old job, maybe you get a token raise (that won't come close to compensating you for all the extra work you put in), the company owns the new business, and you receive no equity or stock. If the new business fails (as mos

Sign that Google is getting too big

[simula67]

Always wondered how big companies can build new innovative products. If someone truly has a good idea, in this day and age, they can always start their own company. Otherwise, they will be working long hours on their project so someone else can make the money. This may not appeal to many smart people. This might be the solution : ask them to start a company inside the parent company. Parent acts as an incubator, but the people working on the new project holds a majority stake in the child company and can

Re:

[Mr D from 63]

Many people do not start their own company because they can't afford to not make any money during the development stages, and they don't want to simultaneously take on debt. Its risk to do so. If the company you work for is willing to take all that risk, then they get the reward, or pay the price of failure.

Re:

[Hognoxious]

I think there's a bit more to it than having a good idea.

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