Google sets a new record, shuts down a service after only three months (androidpolice.com)

Honestly I think Google's biggest misstep was removing Google Labs. If it was in Labs you expected it would either flourish or get shut down

Now they just sort of launch/buy things and then shut them down

It looks like they call that sort of thing Area 120 now. There's a difference between branding things as experiments and branding them as internally incubated projects. I can't place my finger on the actual difference, it just feels lame. Too corporate? Too official?

How do you do, fellow startups https://cdn.imgy.org/rvAR.png

On the topic of Google products shutting down, the death of AMP seems to have been accelerated. I see less AMP content, even in carousel results. And they have removed the "lightning bolt" icons on the carousel thumbnails that are AMP hosted.

I am in fact happy they killed this before it went public. At least people did not invest in learning a new service and then have to deal with migrating it elsewhere.

Area 120 functions an internal sabbatical/fellowship to retain employees who would otherwise quit and work for competitors, and as a carrot to dangle in front of other employees.

The projects aren't meant to succeed.

This isn't a Google service. This is a Area 120 service, big difference. Area 120 is an incubator. Tons of their products don't make it to the public. Clickbait article :/.

So correct me if I am wrong so basically Area 120 is a incubator which feeds on the ideas of employees and launches them as Alphabets products? So if the employee has the Alphabets blessing they can continue but since its google property, they have to give up their dream?