1.) It's possible, though if that happens, I probably wouldn't write about it because I don't want to bad-mouth my employer. I also got the impression that there's a lot of cool, meaningful stuff going on in the Googleplex, but we just don't see most of it because products typically take a few years to mature. Think of all the stealth-mode startups that are out there building things you've never heard of, then imagine that going on inside one organization.
2.) Similarly, one of my reasons for choosing Google was indeed to meet potential new cofounders, but I wouldn't recruit them directly away from work (I don't think I legally can - I'm guessing that Google will have a no-solicit agreement like every other tech place I've worked at). It's more to get to know them as friends, so that if 5-10 years down the line, we're both getting really bored with everything going on at the Googleplex, there's a big pool of people that I'd like to work with.
2.) Similarly, one of my reasons for choosing Google was indeed to meet potential new cofounders, but I wouldn't recruit them directly away from work (I don't think I legally can - I'm guessing that Google will have a no-solicit agreement like every other tech place I've worked at). It's more to get to know them as friends, so that if 5-10 years down the line, we're both getting really bored with everything going on at the Googleplex, there's a big pool of people that I'd like to work with.