Yashraj Sharma, Founder & CEO of Wyzr, shed light on the true story behind the creation of Google News, in a recent LinkedIn post. Wyzr CEO introduced the world to Krishna Bharat – an Indian-origin scientist who turned frustration into innovation.
Not many know that Google News wasn’t initially a part of the company’s grand vision, nor was it a directive handed to Bharat by Google’s management. Instead, it was the result of Google’s groundbreaking “20% time” policy, which allowed employees to spend 20% of their work hours on projects of their personal interest, even if they had no relation to their regular responsibilities.
“Not many people know that Google News was created by an Indian-origin scientist named Krishna Bharat. And he hadn’t been asked by Google to do it. It was the result of a policy that deliberately set people free. Back in the day, Google had this “20% time” policy where people were allowed to work on projects of their interest for 20% of the time they spent at work. These projects need not be part of their day-to-day responsibilities,” Yashraj Sharma said in a post on LinkedIn.
At the time, Bharat was frustrated by the inefficiency of finding reliable news stories online. He recognised the need for a better system to aggregate and present news stories in a meaningful way. Armed with this frustration and a bit of free time, Krishna Bharat developed Google News during his 20% time. But this was just one of many revolutionary projects born from the policy.
“Krishna was frustrated by the difficulty of finding news stories online, so he created Google News in his 20% time. And not just Google News, even GMail, GTalk, Google Sky, and Google Translate were all products of the same policy. Not sure if it continues today, but it’s said that over half of Google’s new offerings are built during this period of pure autonomy, where people are set free to innovate. It’s the most powerful demonstration of the effects of hiring great people and setting them free,” Sharma added.
This story stands as a powerful testament to the idea that hiring talented individuals and giving them the freedom to explore their passions can lead to groundbreaking results. Krishna Bharat’s creation of Google News is a prime example of how frustration with an existing system, combined with the freedom to innovate, can lead to the creation of products that change the world.
All about Krishna Bharat
Bharat completed his schooling at St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School in Bengaluru before earning an undergraduate degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Georgia Tech. Prior to joining Google in 1999, Bharat worked at the DEC Systems Research Center, where he, along with George Mihaila, developed the Hilltop algorithm.
