I worked at Google for a number of years during which time lots of products were coming out or ramping up. For instance, at the time Orket was Google's social strategy du jour.
There was minimal (if any) pressure to use Orket over the burgeoning Facebook or aging MySpace at the time. When we ran internal experiments often we would use Google properties like Orket and/or other dog food. But it wasn't required.
I believe this time around (G+) there was more employee encouragement. Probably both in internal PR and (if rumors are true) financially.
But either way, folks that work at Google are proud of working there. It's not unlike rooting for your college team. And as a result they're likely to use Google products without extra incentive.
Also, a lot of things have changed since then with Larry at the helm. He is focussed on eradicating bloat (tons of Google products that were recently culled), and making sure whatever exists, succeeds.
And the article that colinsidoti posted seems to have brought a paradigm shift to employee bonuses. Dog fooding is directly tied to your bonueses now. A financial motivator definitely changes the game.
In regards to Google's relatively new strategy of getting high quality content on its products represents a paradigm shift from an Engineering-oriented company to a well-rounded company which understands other domains for it to succeed.
There was minimal (if any) pressure to use Orket over the burgeoning Facebook or aging MySpace at the time. When we ran internal experiments often we would use Google properties like Orket and/or other dog food. But it wasn't required.
I believe this time around (G+) there was more employee encouragement. Probably both in internal PR and (if rumors are true) financially.
But either way, folks that work at Google are proud of working there. It's not unlike rooting for your college team. And as a result they're likely to use Google products without extra incentive.