I have just been reading this article on the BBC website, it’s about Google and it’s Headquarters not looking anything like you would think it would look like!<\/p>\n
The headquarters of the most popular search engine in the world is a remarkably unimpressive place.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Google’s base is more industrial than architectural<\/p>\n
Mountain View, California, sounds like a glamorous address. But the home of more than 5,000 Google staff is a sprawl of low rise, nondescript buildings on an industrial estate about 20 miles south of San Francisco.<\/p>\n
The main building has a novel name – the Googleplex – but there are warehouses in the British Midlands that are more architecturally interesting. Similarly, one spot is known as the “amphitheatre” – but nothing could be less classically inspired or artistically stimulating.<\/p>\n
What is striking is the number of very young, geeky-looking people wandering between the buildings. The campus of Stanford university where Larry Page met Sergey Brin is not far away.<\/p>\n
College kids<\/strong><\/p>\n
The Googleplex could easily be an extension of that campus, just as Google is the commercial expression of the vision which those two computer scientists had of getting a grip on the internet by inventing their search engine.<\/p>\n
Most of the staff look as if they are still at college.<\/p>\n
Some jog around. Some are on bikes. Quite a few ride around on yellow motorised scooters – which will no doubt become a craze elsewhere.<\/p>\n
But most simply wander around like students, wearing casual clothes, chatting a little anxiously in small groups and glancing at the TV crew in the car park with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.<\/p>\n
“I know, I know”, says a more weatherworn face when I tell him that profits have just gone up 82%. “I’ve made three quarters of a million.”<\/p>\n
I can’t tell if he’s joking, but one in five on the payroll here is a millionaire. The boys who started it – still in their early 30s – are worth more than $10bn each.<\/p>\n
Fighting shy<\/strong><\/p>\n
Again, that is hard to believe from the site. I once filmed the Lazio football team outside Rome, and was mesmerized by the Ferraris in the car park. A typical premier league team in England packs the car park with Porsches and Aston Martins.<\/p>\n
Here, though, the parking lot is more typical of a secondary school: modest medium-sized family vehicles, usually Japanese, and a high proportion of hybrids. There’s the odd jeep and sports car, but they are rare and restrained.<\/p>\n
A high proportion of the staff are Asian too. Eavesdrop, and you’ll hear many languages.<\/p>\n
One youngster rides over on a bike which is far too small for him. He’s friendly, but turns out to be a security guard – checking up on us.<\/p>\n
Another in more typical bouncer uniform – black bomber jacket and jeans – soon takes up position in the car park corner. She’s shy when we try to reassure her that we have no intention of storming the joint.<\/p>\n
The senior communications staff are equally shy. Though we’ve met them in the past, they ignored our e-mails and calls. No-one else has been briefed either – which could explain why an extraordinary 82% rise in income to $372.2 million in the last quarter is viewed on Wall Street as a disappointment.<\/p>\n
A few lines from Google’s chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, are released through a press agency stating the obvious.<\/p>\n
“We are very pleased with our results for the fourth quarter as we achieved excellent performance across our businesses,” he says.<\/p>\n
Growing up<\/strong><\/p>\n
Some might imagine that the media blackout means they have something to hide. Others, however, suggest something more prosaic: arrogance.<\/p>\n
There is irony in the sense that an army of computer nerds with a mission to facilitate the transfer of information feels no need to communicate with the outside world.<\/p>\n
With Google’s shares taking a – rare – beating following the earnings announcement, the Wall Street Journal spelt out a common mood.<\/p>\n
“Google’s investors may have got a painful lesson about the risks of the company’s Warren Buffett-inspired policy of refusing to give earnings guidance,” it said, warning that “the risk of nasty surprises” would be high until the company started offering more of a steer on what its performance would turn out to be.<\/p>\n
The overall impression on the ground is that Google has got big – but has not yet necessarily matured.<\/p>\n
That tallies with its recent policy positions. One day, it takes a defiant stand, refusing to hand over data to the US Justice department. Days later, it’s agreeing to censor its searches in China.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, having recently been encouraged to look at the good deeds done by the Google Foundation, I read in the latest accounts that there will be no more payments to that charity “for the foreseeable future”.<\/p>\n
No-one offers an explanation. Surely times aren’t too hard for the company to keep up its payments and cling onto its philanthropic ambitions. I wish I could tell you their answer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n