What does one of the world’s richest brands (worth over 113 Billion) do with those billions of dollars it has earned outside of the U.S.? You can’t simply bring it back home without a huge tax bill so you build a 1-Million square foot office in London. Scheduled to open in 2016, this office will have a climbing wall, roof garden, open-air swimming pool, indoor football pitch, and sit on 2.4 acres of land between Kings Cross and St. Pancras stations in London. This is one of London’s most significant property transactions in recent years. The land and development are estimated just over 1 billion dollars. Google staff will be able to ride their bicycles right into a 20,000 square foot bike shed attached to the building and have free lunches every day. All of these conveniences help entice the estimated 4,500 staff to work at the office and have no reason to leave.
Another Google Office: London with 1-Million Square Feet!
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What you describe sounds like the earthly paradise of developers and technology professionals. I think everyone in the digital world (creative, programmers, system engineers) have at some point in their lives the fantasy of working in a place with such characteristics.
Google invests in a better workplace and in medium term that translates into an ideal work scope for the development of new ideas. We who are outside of that dynamic take note of these changes before each new ad, but it is a time consuming process and energy. Without doubt, the guys working in local agency of Google in London will be delighted with this new news. ^_^
A billion dollars to create another Google campus? Sounds about right! Google knows how to ensure that its employees are happy and they will continue to deliver for their employer. Best of all, Google can afford to spend lavishly as Adword will continue to mint them money for many years to come. Google continues to try out new products, but Adword is their really only main success for revenue.
I chuckled at the last line. I’ve always thought the perks provided by big software companies are not exactly perks but incentives just to make you stay and work overtime. I’ve always advised friends to stay away from companies who highlight these particular ‘perks’ just because of that. However, it is understandable though because it might just be that the nature of most successful software companies is that they work harder than the usual — why not be incentivized for doing so? Anyway, Google is Google: I’d probably jump on a job offer too if I’ve the skill and expertise for it.
I would love the work for Google. All the stories I hear about people having their work environment they want like having a pool table in your office. I even read an article in Reddit about Google hiring the smartest for east task so they just drink and have fun because of the amount of time they have left over. Google does it right to create innovations in their company.
I would love to be hired by Google. All of the stories I have heard of people who work for Google have only been positive. I’m glad they are building a new office so many more people can experience this wonderful job.
The new office sounds fantastic. For those who have the skills and the passion it must be wonderful to work for Google. You would be surrounded by the proverbial best and the brightest in a challenging and yet favorable work environment. All that and such luxurious facilities; it sounds very much like being in college and enjoying the very best of collegiate life…and being paid for it.
Wow, that sounds awesome! I think everyone has at one point thought about working for Google, and I have to say I now see why. Never really wondered about their offices and headquarters, but this sounds just fantastic!
It’s great how Google chooses to constantly invest in it’s employees! I think working at Google is probably among the top 10 working places world wide! I would like to work in their new London office after it’s built! It is no wonder they are doing so good and cranking out products when their employees work in these conditions!
If only other bigger companies would take away from this and improve working conditions! Wouldn’t they make more money? Of course they would! And wouldn’t their employees be more dedicated and strive more for the company? That’s another yes.
It’s astonishing how fast Google has blown up. I can’t think of any other company with such a diverse portfolio; think about all the Google products we use day-to-day.
Email, smart phones, browser, search engines, social networks, video conferencing, video sharing. Imagine trying to replace every Google product we use daily with some open source alternative. Not only are there products that have no alternative, the alternatives that do exist are often just not to par with Google’s offering (GMail’s spam solution is just miles ahead of the open source alternatives). It’s come to the point where I can’t even begin to imagine a world without Google, and frankly that’s somewhat scary.
The particulars of Google aside, I wonder how safe it is to put so many eggs in one basket. If something were to happen to Google, the impact on our daily lives would probably be enormous, and nefarious.
Add to that Google’s sometimes unsavoury business practices (selling customer data left and right, for instance), and it starts to look somewhat preoccupying.
At the same time, I can’t help but be excited about the amazing pieces of tech they develop, and I’m as stoked as anybody to see what the “next big thing” is going to be.
In short, I’m ambivalent about Google.
That is pretty impressive. Google has been named as one of the best companies to work for by several magazines. I really like the way Google has contributed to the way we network, shaping how we maintain our communication line and the way we package our services. I also like what they are doing to support small and medium size business initiatives.