Back when I first visited Google in 2002, the company was known almost exclusively for its ability to provide answers. Then, in a field crowded with clunky search engines such as Lycos and AltaVista, Google stood out with its lightning-fast, intuitive query results. Likewise, the company’s Mountain View headquarters was the kind of place that seemed to epitomize the dot-com age’s fun, pioneering, anticorporate spirit. The Googleplex of 10 years ago comprised only two modestly sized buildings and a sprawling parking lot that seemed, in fact, bigger than its office space. But a publicist accompanied me on a tour, and our travels revealed a fun, freewheeling vibe: A helpyourself cereal bar tucked in amid the cubicles! Free vegan food in the employee café! Bean bags for napping! Lava lamps! Then, too, it was easy to schedule a quick interview with Brin and Page, the two friends who founded the company on the notion that search should be smart and easy, with query results generated via an algorithm method that ranked results by usefulness and popularity—without the influence of ad dollars. The early version of Google, Brin told me then, “was a very primitive search engine … but as more people began to use it, it became increasingly clear that we had [created] a valuable technology.” And although Brin and Page said they were “surprised” by Google’s success, they also got why the search engine had become less of a utilitarian tool and more of a lifestyle application. “[S]earches are important to people,” Brin said. “They search for information on their health, on their careers—for things important to their lives.” In the years that have followed, the company also armed its users with an arsenal of useful tools such as email, online data storage, productivity software and, with its acquisition of companies such as YouTube, Blogger and Picasa, has built a veritable virtual empire. It’s the most-visited site in the world: According to Google’s own figures, more than 1 billion queries are conducted daily via its search engine. Such success, of course, means that Google faces constant scrutiny: How profitable is it? How innovative? And, most importantly, what’s next?
Our reporter goes searching for answers, 10 years later, at the Googleplex
G
oogle is more than just a search engine—it’s a noun, a verb and a way of internet life. We use it every day, often without thinking. The search box is just there, empty and waiting for our questions, curiosities and concerns. Launched in 1998, Google built its name by providing information and shaping perspectives. The company, founded by Stanford University students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, started as a simple but powerful search-engine company that redefined what it meant to look up information on the internet. OPINION
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NEWS
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GREEN
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FEATURE STORY
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ARTS&CULTURE
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IN ROTATION
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ART OF THE STATE
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The house that built The house that search search built A decade had passed since my first visit to the Googleplex, so now seemed a good time to return for a look at how the company has evolved. Indeed, it’s a full-fledged international entity boasting 33,000 employees who work in 70 offices in 40 companies around the globe, from Seattle to Boston and New York, Dublin to |
NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
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Zurich, Dubai to Hong Kong and Seoul to Tokyo. Closer to home, the Mountain View campus employs nearly onethird of its workforce and spreads out over several city blocks that are populated by three dozen buildings and a notable dearth of parking spaces. Workers bike on brightly colored cruisers or stroll through grassy commons, laptops tucked under arms or into messenger bags with Androids—the Google-powered smartphones—seemingly glued to fingertips.
“We’re [trying to get teachers] to think about a paradigm shift. When I was growing up, we had the one library on 10th Avenue and 50th Street, and five schools shared it. Now we have the web.”
Jaime Casap, senior education evangelist at Google
Dogs trot in and out of buildings, following their human counterparts to meetings and conferences and even trips to the bathrooms that sport, at least in some buildings, heated toilet seats. There are indoor playgrounds— complete with bright plastic slides and jungle gyms—and baskets stocked with Jolly Rancher candies. There are on-site haircuts and oil changes. There are video games and a bowling alley that’s available to be booked by the lane for work meetings; there are volleyball and tennis courts, soccer fields and hiking trails that snake through wooded enclaves and over picturesque footbridges. There are hammocks and picnic tables, free umbrellas for rainy days, swimming pools and big-screen TVs. There is, even, a rocket—well, a life-size replica of NASA’s SpaceShipOne, to be exact—that hangs above a staircase, held in place via an intricate system of wires and pulleys. The lava lamps are still there, as is the free food—there are numerous cafés throughout the premises, in fact, with dishes to meet every dietary need and taste: kosher, vegan and glutenfree; sushi, pizza and sandwiches, as well as refrigerated cases stocked with free bottles of vitamin water, sports drinks and bubbly sodas. These are, inarguably, great employee perks—presumably funded, at least in part, by the profits Google earns via its AdWords pro-
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“SECRETS OF GOOGLE” continued on page 12
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