I’m currently working from the Googleplex, the headquarters of Google in Mountain View. It’s located in the former headquarters of Silicon Graphics (now in bankruptcy) and the green and purple color scheme still remains on many of the buildings. I was there visting a few friends, including Mike (my secret Google friend), Jeff Veen and Greg Veen who work on Measure Map (which was acquired by Google back in February).
Google’s photography policy is super strict, so I was only able to shoot a few of photos during my visit, but here are a few observations:
- Yes, the food is as good as everyone says it is. There is a main cafe, plus 4 or 5 other satellite cafes, each with their own theme. Oh yeah and it’s all free. No wonder there have been rumors of people from Yahoo! try to sneak in.
- I had one of the special It’s It Google ice cream desserts. Fantastic.
- They have the best toilets in tech, no butts about it, the super sophisticated TOTO Washlets which are heated and have many great features. The Python jokes taped to the inside of the toilet stalls are an added bonus (Python author Guido van Rossum works here).
- Sad news, the famous “Master Plan” whiteboard has been erased, but not to worry, new plans are being hatched.
- Neil Gaiman was giving a talk today. They have a regular schedule of interesting speakers who come in and give talks.
Yeah, it’s a pretty amazing work environment. Hell, I think I could even live here.
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They should make an exception to their photo policy for you (particularly since there have been so many Yahoo photos over the last week or so).
I am jealous. Nice writeup.
Note to Google’ers reading this. I will take a day off of OpenDNS and come talk about Anthropology and the DNS just to hang out on the campus for a day. I will not pontificate, I will educate. I will probably want an It’s It ice cream sandwich. I might use the bathroom. That is all.
I was lucky enough to lunch with Neil today, but I didn’t get to catch his talk. Yes, we are very grateful here for the work environment.
Yeah, I could live in there too. But then, I just wish that I could somehow spend a day there like you.
Google, everyone is talking about them except Googlers, they are busy creating it.
Muchas felicidades
Google looks like a great place to work at. It beats many other companies out there on interior looks (not to mention on almost every field they put their company in). I’d love to have a chance to tour the Google headquarters, maybe I’ll get a chance one day.