Here, I'd like to quote one of my friends' opinion: Google, right now, is driven by fear, not by vision. This fear-driven development (FDD... :-D ), is not a good sign. I don't know whether it's because when the organization exceeds certain size, this must happen or there are other reasons behind it, but I do believe that, when exceeds some limit, innovative and creative idea lost the best environment to grow, unless you try to keep the organization at a reasonable scale.