Because starting something like this is exciting, and there is no reason to keep it secret. I can't think of a good reason to not announce. It's not like they called a huge press conference or brought this out at a trade show, it's a quick blog post. Do you not tell your friends when you start some cool new project? People like talking about this stuff.

Also, more practically, ideas for this kind of venture can come from anywhere. Maybe someone reading this has a brilliant idea for improving city life, but doesn't have the money or entrepreneurial ability to make it happen. Maybe some startup has a great product in this area, and could really benefit from a partnership with a company with Google's resources. Maybe some city government wants to commission a project to track and optimize their energy usage, I don't know. Why would you intentionally work in isolation when there are potentially great ideas out there?

There is no such thing as an insignificant "quick blog post" when you are the CEO of a $365B company.

And it is unlikely that the goal of the post was to solicit ideas given that it didn't solicit any ideas.

I didn't really mean the post was insignificant, just that it was as low impact as can be for such a giant company.

And I don't agree, one of the company's stated purposes is "incubating urban technologies". They aren't actively asking for any idea out there, but they clearly intend to interact with other startups and inventors at some point, and the only way to make that happen is to get your name out there.

And again, what is the downside? If there isn't any, then "because we wanted to" is a good enough reason.

A downside: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

Vaporware is when you promise a product and fail to deliver on it.

They have not announced a product yet, only a research area.

This is a huge undertaking where public support and co-operation is paramount. They cannot come out one day and tell people what they have done and what to do. They need to give a heads up.

Is it only me or does HN take all announcements cynically?

This wasn't an announcement. It was the announcement of an announcement.

> Is it only me or does HN take all announcements cynically?

Given that most announcements turn out not to be worth the space they take on server HDD, it's hardly surprising.

> What does "time to get to work" even mean here? Doing what?

Sometimes the first challenge is to figure that out.

Sometimes it makes sense to note the problem in the early stages.

I think its kinda cool that Google is exploring this.

what about if you already start working during the commute? it is "shortening time" travelling to work.

They are recruiting for staffand ideas. All they have is seed funding and a famous guy

nice pun!