Recently in San Jose, California
“What's next from Google? It's hard to say. We don't talk much about what lies ahead, because we believe one of our chief competitive advantages is surprise.”
A quick search of the Internet giant on the Web throws up that ‘mission statement'. A visit to the campus, dubbed ‘Googleplex,' revealed how the company manages to retain that element of surprise in all that they do.
As we entered the headquarters of Google in Mountain View, California, our attention was drawn to a space ship hanging from the ceiling - it is a multi-million dollar prize up for grabs, for a bright idea whose time is yet to come.
Robotic vehicle
The $30-million Google X Prize, to be given to a team from anywhere in the world which designs a robotic vehicle, which can land on the Moon and traverse 500 metres on the terrain and send back images to the Earth. Also known as the Paul Allen project, the deadline for participants to grab the prize is December 31, 2012. As we walked around the Googleplex, several objects caught our eye.
The objects are placed in no particular order but perhaps only intended to stimulate creativity among the employees. We noticed old server clusters, a piano, a Google logo on the wall, a Graffiti or creativity board (‘Geeks without frontiers'), featuring thousands of doodles and drawings by employees. A compact booth, at the entrance, allows the visitor to explore Planet Earth – by navigating through high resolution pictures from Google Earth, Google maps and similar applications.
The term ‘Googleplex' is a reference to googolplex, which is 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 100 or the numeral one followed by a googol of zeroes.
A team of nearly 60 journalists, from across the globe, was invited to tour the campus. Once inside, however, we were asked not to click pictures. This prompted one journalist to remark, “Google takes pictures of everything under the Sun, including our homes and here we are asked not to click photos.”
Discussion rooms
As we walked through the hallways, we observed rooms marked ‘Tech Talks,' where brainstorming sessions take place.
Google, we learnt, strongly believes in flexible work timings. The only thing that matters is timely completion of tasks. The company gives importance to social and recreational activities and has set up ‘play areas' within the campus. Employees can choose from a well-equipped gym, indoor games, dance lessons, video games, piano, pool tables, table tennis and so on.
Employees flock to these play areas throughout the day. There are also snack rooms stocked with soft drinks and food items, and a souvenir shop.
We saw quite a few Indians among the Google staff members, and discovered a tiny hub for Indian food (‘Namaste') in the cafeteria area, which serves American, Chinese and other types of cuisine too.
Close to the gourmet's spot, is ‘Charlie's', the melting pot of ideas for Google staff, especially on Friday afternoons. The meeting point has been named after Mr Charlie Ayers, Google's first and most popular head chef.
This spot even attracts Google founders, Mr Larry Page and Mr Sergey Brin, who gather here to make announcements or listen to new ideas.
The spokesperson later informed us that the present campus buildings were once the offices of Silicon Graphics, the famous computing solutions company.
New campus
The Internet search giant will soon move to a new address in Silicon Valley with a one million sq.ft campus at the NASA Research Park at Ames.
With a young and resourceful employee base, tonnes of cash and high valuation, Google looks all set to achieve greater heights.
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