Moonshots, huh? I'd call them "useless PR stunts".
Stuff that's neither useful and product oriented (like from Apple), nor deep or interesting enough (like Xerox Parc, IBM or AT&T of old) but is guaranteed to buy some expensive positive news coverage and bring some goodwill towards Google for their "innovations".
It's crazy that we complain when companies build apps that we don't think is meaningful enough.
But when a company aims to build something trying to achieve a lofty goal, we call it a "useless PR stunts".
Not for 10+ years or more. And at that point it might not even come from Google (other companies also conduct research on that, just less publickly). So the current spectacle and premature announcements are pure PR.
>It's crazy that we complain when companies build apps that we don't think is meaningful enough. But when a company aims to build something trying to achieve a lofty goal, we call it a "useless PR stunts".
How is that "crazy"? It's like saying, "It crazy how we call people to not be overweight, but when they stop eating altogether we call them anorexic". Comdemning one extreme doesn't mean we should applaud the other extreme.
I mean, there's a whole spectrum between "non meaningful crap" and "useless PR research" that companies could be aiming for...