This week I had the opportunity to join deucejing in Mountain View for lunch and a tour of Google’s world headquarters. The Googleplex is a pretty amazing place, and a lot has already been written about it so I’ll stick with the highlights of what I thought was interesting/cool/funny.
- When I first pulled up, I passed parking spots for carpools and expectant mothers, and found an open space amid a sea of Priuses. I had to check around to make sure I wasn’t in some “hybrid-only” area.
- The visitor check-in system is completely automated. You type your name and who you’re visiting and Google’s computer instantly pings your Gmail storage usage, your AdWords spending, your Blogger posts, your Adsense and Google Affiliate Network earnings, and your Picasa albums to determine if you’re worthy of a namebadge sticker. Whatever top-secret algorithm they use, it worked and printed me out a sticker. There were receptionists, but I think they are only there to refill the printers when they get low.
- There’s free food everywhere! There were so many choices for lunch it was almost like being back at the Wynn buffet. If I worked there I’d be obese for sure.
- Nobody is obese. Probably because of the high-class on-site gym, beach volleyball court, loaner bikes, and infinite pools.
- Like any good tour, we were sure to made a stop at the gift-shop, a “beta version” of an offline store filled with Google swag. I didn’t buy anything so they docked a few MB’s off my gmail account.
- I didn’t see anyone over 35 years old the whole time.
All in all, the Googleplex definitely looked like a cool place to work. It was the exact opposite of any Ford office I’d ever been to. And it was nice to see they’re putting my advertising dollars to good use, feeding thousands of smart hungry Silicon Valley youth each day.
And I’m just one small cog in their massive, ridiculously profitable money machine.
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Tags: business, california, google
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