<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Googleplex The GoogleplexMain article: GoogleplexAs a further play on Google's name, its headquarters, located in California, are referred to as "the Googleplex" ? a googolplex being 1 followed by a googol of zeros, and the HQ being a complex of buildings (cf. multiplex, cineplex, etc). The lobby is decorated with a piano, lava lamps, old server clusters, and a projection of search queries on the wall. The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. Each employee has access to the corporate recreation center. Recreational amenities are scattered throughout the campus, and include a workout room with weights and rowing machines, locker rooms, washers and dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, Foosball, a baby grand piano, a pool table, and ping pong. In addition to the rec room, there are snack rooms stocked with various cereals, gummy bears, toffee, licorice, cashews, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit, and dozens of different drinks including fresh juice, soda, and make your own cappuccino. In October, 2006, the company announced plans to install thousands of solar panels to provide up to 1.6 megawatts of electricity, enough to satisfy approximately 30% of the campus' energy needs.[22] The system will be the largest solar power system constructed on a U.S. corporate campus and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world.[22]In 2006, Google moved into 311,000 square feet of office space in the second-largest building in New York City, at 111 Eighth Ave. in Manhattan.[23] The office was specially designed and built for Google, and houses its largest advertising sales team, which has been instrumental in securing large partnerships, most recently deals with MySpace and AOL.[23] In 2003, they added an engineering staff in New York City, which has been responsible for more than 100 engineering projects, including Google Maps, Google Spreadsheets, and others.[23] It is estimated that the building costs Google $10 million per year to rent, and is similar in design and functionality to its Mountain View headquarters, including Foosball, air hockey, and ping-pong tables, as well as a video game area.[23]"Twenty percent" timeAll Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20 percent (20%) of their work time on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News and orkut, originated from these independent endeavors.[24] In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, stated that her analysis showed that half of new product launches originated from 20% time.[25]April Fool's Day jokesMain article: Google's hoaxesGoogle has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes - such as Google MentalPlex, which allegedly featured the use of mental power to search the web. In 2002, they claimed that pigeons were the secret behind their growing search engine. In 2004, they featured Google Lunar (which claimed to feature jobs on the moon) and in 2005, a fictitious brain-boosting drink, termed Google Gulp was announced. In 2006 they came up with Google Romance.One can find other pranks hidden in amongst Google's pages; for instance, in the languages list one can find a Bork! Bork! Bork! version of the site (imitating the Muppet Show's Swedish Chef), and they also offer versions in Pig Latin, "Elmer Fudd", Hacker ("H4X0R"), and Klingon. Another prank is Google's answer to life, the universe, and everything.Some thought the announcement of Gmail in 2004 around April Fool's Day (as well as the doubling of Gmail's storage space to two gigabytes in 2005) was a joke, though it turned out (in both cases) to be a genuine announcement. In 2005 a comedic graph depicting Google's goal of "infinity plus one" GB of storage was featured on the Gmail homepage.</div>I was reading up on google, and here were some interesting facts:- at the googleplex all workers have access to a fitness room and a snack room (lucky bastards)- I loved google's april fools jokes ! I actually believe the Google Gulp stuff lol - plus getting a job at google sounds really fun, im liking that "20%" idea.
Wow, Google is an amazing company...unforunately most companies can't do what they do for their employees. Good topic RF#1.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Something-To-Say @ Dec 9 2006, 01:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Weight Room? Sign me up.Snack Room? Sign Tony up.</div>Low blow. .. They say Google will replace Windows sometime because of all the stuff it does for you, email, shopping (Froogle), Local Directions, Search, You can look up scholar articles, its just word processing thats left for the people down at google.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RaptorFan#1 @ Dec 9 2006, 05:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Low blow. .. They say Google will replace Windows sometime because of all the stuff it does for you, email, shopping (Froogle), Local Directions, Search, You can look up scholar articles, its just word processing thats left for the people down at google.</div>Yeah, Google must be one of the biggest businesses on earth ?(Correct me if im wrong)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RaptorFan#1 @ Dec 9 2006, 12:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Low blow. .. They say Google will replace Windows sometime because of all the stuff it does for you, email, shopping (Froogle), Local Directions, Search, You can look up scholar articles, its just word processing thats left for the people down at google.</div>Thats not actully true. I use a program called Writley. Its pretty much a Word, Spreadsheet in a browser. (Owned by google)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cb4fan @ Dec 12 2006, 04:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Thats not actully true. I use a program called Writley. Its pretty much a Word, Spreadsheet in a browser. (Owned by google)</div>Wow. So Why doesn't create an OS? Dont you think it would compete well against windows :you got your :Messenger (Google Talk)Pictures & Media (picasa, google video)Word processing (Writley)Email (Gmail)Internet (Google itself)News (Google News)Shopping (Froogle)+ other things like Google Scholar, Google Groups, wow, thats amazing, they should really make an operating system. "Gindows" For all I know.
