Area 120

Area 120
Named after100% of time on 20% Projects
Key people
Bradley Horowitz, Gabor Cselle
Parent organization
Google
Websitearea120.google.com

Area 120 is Google's in-house incubator in which employees work on 20% Project product ideas. It has helped develop Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and Google Cardboard.[1]

The Area 120 division was created by Sundar Pichai in March 2016 and has since spawned over 50 projects.[1][2] The objective for the Area 120 program is to incubate products that "graduate" back to Google.[1]

In November 2021, the division was reorganized under a new division called Google Labs (unrelated to the defunct service of the same name).[3]

Area 120 was significantly reduced as part of Google's January 2023 layoffs.[4]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ "Google Unveils Advr, An Experimental Area 120 Project for Advertising in VR". Customer Experience Magazine. June 30, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (January 21, 2023). "Area 120, Google's in-house incubator, severely impacted by Alphabet mass layoffs". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved January 23, 2023.