[notatoad]

if you're working on a mainline google product that gets shut down after being hyped as the next huge thing that everybody will be using then yes, that must be disheartening. Being a random developer on something like Allo would have sucked.

But my understanding is that these area 120 projects are built with more of a startup attitude, that you're taking a risk and there's a high probability of failure. It sounds really fun to me to build a "pure" product, being able to create exactly what you think the product should be without having to concede to business requirements, and just see how your vision will be accepted.

[emerongi]

Marketing & sales make products succeed though. If it's just an engineering team chipping away, the probability that it will get mainstream traction is close to nil.