For many people, Google is the most important tool on the Web.
I think that for me, it's God, family and Yahoo - in that order.
The prime reason the Google homepage is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. In fact, it was noted that the SUBMIT button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
Employees, especially young people, want more than a paycheck.
The utmost thing is the user experience, to have the most useful experience.
Innovation is born from the interaction between constraint and vision.