Daily Authority: 📉 Google’s Area 120 cutbacks

🌤️ Hey there! We’re getting fleeting glimpses of spring this week, with the temperature reaching 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) yesterday. I say “fleeting,” because the temperature is set to drop to around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) this weekend. 

Google’s Area 120 division has been around for years now, dating back to early 2016. The division was created so employees could work on side projects in a full-time capacity, but it seems like even this unit isn’t immune to budget cuts.

More like Area 60

• TechCrunch reported that Google has drastically cut back the number of projects in the division.
• More specifically, Area 120 has gone from hosting 14 projects to just seven.
• Affected employees were apparently told they’d need to find other jobs at Google by the end of January 2023 or face termination.
• Google confirmed the change to the outlet, adding that Area 120 will now focus on AI-based projects.
• Canceled projects reportedly include an accounting project for Google Sheets, analytics for AR/VR, and three climate-related projects.

The right move for Google?

• I can’t help but feel like this is a boring move, for lack of a better term.
• Sure, AI is a broad field and it impacts plenty of areas, so there are plenty of possibilities here.
• But Area 120 was founded as a way to focus on so-called 20% projects (“100% of the time”).
• Google originally allowed employees to spend 20% of their time on side projects, spawning Gmail, Google News, and more.
• 20% time was reportedly killed off in 2013, so Area 120 seems like the last vestiges of this concept at Google.
• Area 120 hasn’t seen the same level of hits, but we have seen successful endeavors like Orion Wi-Fi (now a Google Fi feature), Tables (now part of Google Cloud), and Byteboard (now a standalone company).
• So it’s hard to shake the feeling that Google might be missing out on the next Gmail or AdSense if it’s focused solely on AI.
• It’s also interesting to see the company cancel these research projects due to budget concerns, as tech firms like to boast about their R&D expenditure.
• After all, R&D is a foundation for the future of any tech company.
• Of course, this is just part of a larger swathe of budget cuts at Google and across the tech industry at large. Even the next Pixelbook and Pixelbook team were affected by this — although there are plenty of other quality Chromebooks out there.

We all know that fossils are a thing, but fossilized footprints and fossilized poop (called coprolites) are a thing too. However, researchers have now discovered 150 million-year-old fossilized vomit.

Researchers recently published a study on the vomit in the Palaios journal (h/t: CNET with image via Brian Engh), revealing that it contained frog bones and salamander bits. Scientists did some further investigation and found that it didn’t actually belong to a dinosaur but likely came from an ancient bowfin fish. Still beats dealing with fresh vomit, I guess.

Have a great day!
Hadlee Simons, Editor