It's an oddball collection, which results partly from the way Google uses staff time. About 70% is supposed to be devoted to core search products. However, 20% can be given to peripheral programs, such as Blogger, and 10% to more personal projects, such as Google Talk.

According to Elise Ackerman of the San Jose-based Mercury News, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt conceded that "the freedom of Google engineers to pursue such quixotic products had caused the company's focus to slip a bit".