One thing they can agree on, however, is the financial success of the Pichai era. Some say a fear of regulation and public backlash led to paralysis others think it became subservient to Wall Street. Others believe it lacks visionary leadership. It would prove more portentous than he could have imagined.Īsk Googlers when, how, and why their employer got too comfortable, and you'll hear different theories. "In the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant," Page wrote in a memo to employees at the time. The formation of Alphabet in 2015, which put Google's riskier bets outside the core business, was meant to be a solution. In 2012, Business Insider listed 10 reasons Google was " the greatest company in the world," including that it "made sick perks standard for startups" and created "a little something we call 'Google Glass.'"Īs the company grew, the founders became wary of creeping bureaucracy. It virtually mapped Earth with satellite imagery. "The whole culture of 'treat employees really well, give them a sense of ownership' - that was new and crazy in the early 2000s," one veteran staffer said. The ad umbrella gave the founders cover to explore out-there ideas, and they encouraged employees to do the same. The upside was shedloads of cash and, in turn, freedom. Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle/Gettyīrin and Page had little interest in defacing their clean, powerful search engine with clutter, until they tested what would turn out to be Google's golden goose: search advertising. It was an engineer's paradise, flush with great perks, fat salaries, and a belief that long-term investments always trumped short-term payoffs.īack in Google's infancy, co-founder Sergey Brin once served employees lunch. Google created the mold for a new Silicon Valley culture. When Google went public in 2004, Larry Page and Sergey Brin famously told investors that theirs was not a "conventional" company and that they didn't intend for it to become one.įor at least a decade, they kept that promise. What do you do when your formerly freewheeling juggernaut - the company that powered your reputation for boundless creativity and the idea that billions of dollars lurked behind any old line of code - loses its luster? It also raises larger questions for Silicon Valley. The downstream consequences of Google's graying loom large: a talent exodus, stale products, and an overreliance on its advertising cash cow. They have supercharged the perception that Google, once seen as the most desirable place to work in Silicon Valley, has become the one thing it promised it would never be: boring. But the past few years have introduced new troubles: lower tolerance for risk, crackdowns on innovation, layoffs, and a narrative that its famed products like search and Gmail are getting worse. Its boy-wonder cofounders are now emeritus executives, and it changed its corporate name from a word that telegraphed futurism and brainpower to a word most people learn by age 3. It has lived through five presidents and two major market crashes. The company just turned 25 - roughly two centuries in tech years. "Googlers are pissed." Pichai has been describing Google as an AI-first company since 2016, but it has struggled to turn its foundational research - which powers technology like ChatGPT - into products that dazzle.Ĭhatter about Google's transition from vanguard to dinosaur is hardly new. "It's a PR nightmare for the company," a current senior employee said. Industry insiders responded by questioning whether the company had a culture problem and calling for CEO Sundar Pichai's head. The instinct to erect sky-high guardrails led Gemini to "overcompensate in some cases, and be over-conservative in others," the company said. Then, days later, Google scrambled to explain why its image generation tool spit out racially inaccurate depictions of historical figures. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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