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Revision as of 07:13, 2 August 2022
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| Named after | 100% of time on 20% Projects |
|---|---|
| Formation | March 2016[citation needed] |
Key people | Bradley Horowitz, Gabor Cselle |
Parent organization | |
| Website | area120 |
Area 120 is Google's in-house incubator in which employees work on 20% Project product ideas 100% of the time.[tone][1]
Google's concept of 20% projects has led to many of the company's successes[peacock prose] such as Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and Google Cardboard. The Area 120 division was created by Sundar Pichai in March 2016 and has since spawned over 50 projects.[2][1] The objective for the Area 120 program is to incubate products that "graduate" back to Google, where they can become the next billion-user or billion-dollar-revenue products.[tone][1]
In November 2021, the division was reorganized under a new division called Google Labs (unrelated to the defunct service of the same name) along with Google's AR and VR efforts and Project Starline.[3]
Notable products
The program has funded more than 50 different ideas from Google employees. Notable product experiments which have emerged from Area 120 include:
- Tables – a collaborative database program comparable to Airtable. Graduated to Google Cloud.[4]
- Reply – an Android app which allowed users to insert pre-defined replies (called "Smart Replies") into conversations on messaging apps on their phone such as Facebook Messenger, Slack and Google Hangouts.[citation needed]
- Stack – an Android app that digitizes personal documents and extracts key information.[5]
- Gamesnacks – an HTML5 casual games platform for mobile websites.[6]
- Keen – an AI-powered competitor to Pinterest.[7]
- Byteboard – a product that interviews software engineering candidates with real-world project examples.[8] Spun out into a separate company in Oct 2021.[citation needed]
- ThreadIt – short-form video communication service for teams.[9]
- Orion Wifi – lets businesses sell Wi-Fi capacity to wireless carriers.[tone][10]
- Shoploop – a video shopping platform designed to introduce consumers to new products.[11]
- Touring Bird – a search tool for real-life experiences in major cities.[12] Graduated into Google Travel.[13]
- Tangi – a short-form video site.[14]
- AdVR – advertisements in VR[15]
Byteboard spinout
The Byteboard project was spun out from Google into a separate company in Oct 2021.[16] The reason given was that the Byteboard platform used Google employees as human evaluators of candidates for Google competitors, which raised ethical issues.
References
- ^ a b c McCracken, Harry (December 3, 2018). "An exclusive look inside Google's in-house incubator Area 120". Fast Company. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ "Google Unveils Advr, An Experimental Area 120 Project for Advertising in VR". Customer Experience Magazine. June 30, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (November 11, 2021). "Google reorg moves AR, VR, Starline and Area 120 into new 'Labs' team". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (June 14, 2021). "Google's AirTable rival, Tables, graduates from beta test to become a Google Cloud product". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (March 30, 2021). "Google's Area 120 launches Stack, an app that digitizes personal docs and extracts key information". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Singh, Manish; Kene-Okafor, Tage (February 23, 2021). "Area 120 is beginning to use Google's massive reach to scale HTML5 GameSnacks platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Vincent, James (June 19, 2020). "Google quietly launches an AI-powered Pinterest rival named Keen". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic (July 17, 2019). "Google's Area 120 launches Byteboard to improve technical interviews". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Heater, Brian (March 18, 2021). "Google Area 120's ThreadIt is bite-size video for team collaborations". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Hetting, Claus (September 8, 2021). "Google's new 'Orion WiFi' empowers public venues to make money on Wi-Fi offload". WiFi Now. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (July 16, 2020). "Google's latest R&D project is Shoploop, a mobile video shopping platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Plautz, Jessica (September 6, 2018). "Easily Find the Best Activities in Top Destinations With This New Tool Out of Google". Travel + Leisure. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Poojary, Lax (October 22, 2019). "Touring Bird lands with Google to plan your perfect trip". The Keyword. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (January 29, 2020). "Google's Area 120 launches Tangi, a short-form video app focused on creativity and DIY". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (June 28, 2017). "Google unveils Advr, an experimental Area 120 project for advertising in VR". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (October 5, 2021). "Technical interview platform Byteboard spins out of Google's Area 120, takes on new funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
External links
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