Google is operating strictly on the profit motive. They often hire recruits fresh out of college, some with good technical skills, some without, but both groups will require additional training by google to work within the particular needs of the company. The company undoubtedly spends millions or even billions on training. This is simply a way to give people the training Google needs, and actually have the students pay for it.

There is no economic incentive for Google to provide education in history or economics, or even business. Google is not doing this because of altruistic incentives. I find it sad that we are offloading education, which serves society as a whole, to profit-making private companies. More ways to divide our community.

Finally, GOOGLE will consider their program the equivalent of a 4-year degree. Nobody else (that I know of) has said they will do the same. This will be fine, as long as you intend to spend your career at Google. But if you want a real higher education, or if you think you might want to work somewhere else, you will have to start over.

Again, this is a great short-term deal for people who want to have careers as coders, because it is a lot cheaper than a real degree. In the long run, it will probably result in lower lifetime earnings for its graduates.