You're probably being downvoted for off-topicness, FYI, since this comment is equally germane to any mention of Go. That said, I feel it is a comment in good faith and deserves an answer.
Question #1: How invested should you model Google as being in Go's future? Answer: Extraordinarily invested. They have a whole lot of code written in it, most of which the world will never hear about, and which powers services that they will continue running until the sun goes nova. Google will likely continue maintaining and extending Go programs (as well as C++, Java, and Python) for the foreseeable future.
Question #2: Can Go survive without Google's corporate backing? Answer: Go is an OSS project. Like many OSS projects, it receives a substantial amount of support from corporate interests. Go is not uniquely a Google priority -- many organizations like having a systems programming language which has its feature set. In the absence of meaningful support from Google, Go code existing as of August 2015 would continue to function. Further versions of the language/toolchain/etc would have substantial question marks about them, but the community feels large enough that this would be a Significant Event rather than a death knell.
I'm not sure if this will help me. I guess I'm in a programmer midlife crisis. Every new thing is potentially a waste of time because you can't predict if it is still around in 2 years. And with Google you know that they invest millions of dollars in projects and then abandon them.
Would I be better off maintaining decade old COBOL projects? Sometimes I think so. Other times I'm glad I can chose the technology I want to solve the problems at work.
You can never stop learning. Go is my current 'thing', at least for personal projects. But who knows what the landscape will be like in 5 years or 10.
For a while I though Haskell was the most awesome thing. Good Haskell code has a timeless quality to it (in a couple senses of the word). But I found adapting my thinking to it difficult, and it wasn't likely to be something I'd use at work then or now.
Question #1: How invested should you model Google as being in Go's future? Answer: Extraordinarily invested. They have a whole lot of code written in it, most of which the world will never hear about, and which powers services that they will continue running until the sun goes nova. Google will likely continue maintaining and extending Go programs (as well as C++, Java, and Python) for the foreseeable future.
Question #2: Can Go survive without Google's corporate backing? Answer: Go is an OSS project. Like many OSS projects, it receives a substantial amount of support from corporate interests. Go is not uniquely a Google priority -- many organizations like having a systems programming language which has its feature set. In the absence of meaningful support from Google, Go code existing as of August 2015 would continue to function. Further versions of the language/toolchain/etc would have substantial question marks about them, but the community feels large enough that this would be a Significant Event rather than a death knell.
Does that help?