[whack]

First off, yes, Google messed up here. They even acknowledged it themselves and took it down asap once they realized it.

But second, people need to cut Google a little slack here. We all make mistakes, or errors in judgement, and Google is no different. Do we really want to live in a world where companies are afraid to innovate and try anything new, because people are going to jump on their backs if things don't work out? Part of the reason why Google was able to create so many great products, like Maps, Mail and so on, is because they've created an environment that's very conducive to creativity and experimentation.

As a consumer, I love the fact that Google has given me so many awesome productivity tools, with great features, completely for free, and I don't want them to ever lose the creative/experimental culture that made it possible. If you're not a fan of such a culture, if you just want a no-nonsense humorless stable suit-driven product, well, Microsoft has you well covered.

[gkya]

What this fiasco has to do with innovation, sorry? This is merely a puerile joke, it's like pissin' in the kitchen and shoutin' "April fools!" I can't believe that some people with +$100.000 wages came up with such an idea, and some manager approved it, and the team implemented this, and deployed it, and not a single sane person was there to say, hey, this can bust someone. I'd sack whomever involved.

[Manishearth]

There's a difference between being blocked from innovation and having UX engineers look at something. It is the job of these folks to find out things like this; they don't have blinkers on when it comes to knowing about how the app gets used and how people can fail at things.

It's quite likely that this was just directly shipped given that it's a one-day thing.

Nobody's asking them to stop innovating; you can be more rigorous in your shipping process (which they usually are) without affecting innovation.

[Mithaldu]

No, pranks gone wrong, of any kind, deserve zero slack and even zero tolerance.

And make no mistake, this has hurt people, seriously.

Unless Google actually seeks those out and rights the wrong they did them, there is no sympathy or forgiveness they deserve in any way whatsoever.

[mizzao]

Microsoft is actually trying out all sorts of stuff lately. Ubuntu for Windows? VS Code? OSS, cross-platform build tools? Lots of interesting things.

[fixermark]

Racist chatbot AIs! ;)

[AlexandrB]

> Lots of interesting things.

Don't forget always-on surveillance of its users ;)

[pjmlp]

Tell that to the guys that lost their job thanks to it.

[theinternetman]

> once they realized it.

Why did it reach shipping before they realised it is the real question.

This is a terrible idea before it even leaves the whiteboard.

[sosuke]

Reading replies to this I think it might be a good idea to take a few deep breaths, then consider just how small this mistake is, how it should be a lesson learned and that no one needs to be fired over it.