Ex-Google Docs engineer reveals why Markdown support took over a decade: org silos
kevinakwok · x · 2026-10-07
A former Google Docs engineer explains the internal history behind Markdown's slow arrival: after the Writely-to-OT editor rewrite 15 years ago, Markdown ranked far below basic editor features, and skeptics dismissed the spec as "some guy's webpage." The real blocker for 5+ years was organizational: the Word↔Docs conversion lived with a separate Sydney team called Changeling, whose opposite working hours made coordination nearly impossible — letting opponents endlessly defer the feature. A classic tale of coordination costs trumping user demand.
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