Do you work at Google? I'm curious, because according to others, while 20% time does technically require management approval, it's usually not a problem.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3703018

Also, inferring company culture from the lack of a visible public beta is a bit of an assumption, don't you think?

Going from "it's your time, nobody can take it away from you, but it's up to you to take it", as it was in my day, to "it requires management approval" is a big difference to me. Would you agree?

no, I'm using loads of data-points, including reading about organization near the top as reported by business sources, as well as comments at various places that I can link to (including here), and finally by observing Google's actions as done and as reported. I can detail all of this for you if you like, but, really, it's not so hard to put together. Come to your own conclusion.

google maps was an acquired product. It was modified to work in the browser.

they acquired the data because of the browser trick; that's why decided to get into doing that. look it up.