EightBlack.

“Another goddam Prius”. Silly little cars.

But what a marketing feat. Toyota, via some very clever positioning with some tree hugging celebrities have made these so called “green” hybrid vehicles a must have accessory in California. Especially in Silicon Valley.

Apparently, if you have a Prius, you’re allowed to drive down the Tranit Lanes (normally reserved for cars with 2 occupants or un-hinged members of the NRA). Problem is, a Prius wouldn’t be able to pull a greasy stick out of a dogs bum, so may the force be with you if you’re adventurous enough to get into a transit lane and try and do 80 mph in a car with with the same horsepower as a 2 stroke lawn mower.

The thing I love about driving on highways in the US is that if the posted speed limit is say 70 miles per hour, most people do 80 or 85. The police, in their wisdom, accept this. It makes sense. Everything in California is arbitrary.

If, on the other hand, you’re in a rental car, the speed limit is just an approximation. Rental cars dont have speed limits. Same goes for their carrying capacity. I once had a friend wo moved house with a rental car and also landscaped his back yard. Did you know that you ca fit 22 bags of cement in the trunk of any mid-sized Hertz vehicle?

Right then, now that I’ve got that off my chest, lets move on.

The GPS in the rental car was calmly telling me to head south on interstate 101 (and to avoid getting a Prius stuck under the rear wheels). It was about 30 miles to 1600 Ampitheater Parkway from downtown San Francisco.

I suppose I didn’t know what to expect as I got closer to Mountain View. To be honest, as I took the exit off the interstate, it was a bit of an anti-climax. The road wound around a bit, we came to a set of traffic lights (more silly little Prius’s) and then that was it. A non-descript building with a guy dressed in a blue t-shirt sitting under a blue umbrella in the driveway.

It was unmistakebly the right place. The corporate coloured Google cones gave it away. Plus the fact the driveway attendant had Google plastered on his clothes.

“Here for an interview Sir?” he asked.

“Yeah right….”

“Nope, here to see “xxx”

“Which building?”, he asked.

“Haven’t the foggiest?”, which was only sort of true because I hadn’t bothered to check the directions to that level of detail.

“Well Sir, we have 4 separate reception areas. Go to this one (points) and take it from there”.

Holy crap. 4 separate buildings. The guy wished me luck and said trying to find a parking space would be a challenge. Which it was. There were all these workmen beavering away in the parking area on what I thought were pretty much useless shelters. All over the place. Except for the fact that they weren’t there to stop people getting wet. They were there to hold the solar panels.

Google, I discovered from my “tour guide”, generates 40% of its own power. Every roof top is covered, every flat space taken advantage of. It must have been an enormous undertaking, not to mention the cost. Which is pretty much irrelevant to a company the size (and determination) of Google.

Reception wasn’t hard to find after I found the building number I needed to be at. Building 41. There was a large drinks fridge on the left as you walked in, comfortable chairs and obviously the standard sort of reception area you find in any corporate environment. Although, there was nothing standard about what was behind the facade.

You print your own name badge via a PC and sign a very legal looking document with one of those geeky electronic pens - which basically says that Google will come and burn your house down, and remove a kidney if you try and steal any of their IP. Or something like that.

There was a projector humming away to one side, pushing content to a glass screen. It was showing the current most popular keyword search terms in real time. Pretty cool I thought.

My host arrived. He was telling me that the displays had a filter on them to stop swear words and other types of indecent language being put in full view. He then chuckled quietly and said “but sometimes it goes pear shaped and words get in there that shouldn’t be”. It’s good to see that even Google aren’t perfect all the time.

You actually don’t realise what you see at the Googleplex until you leave. Because of what there is, and because of what you have come to expect from your entire working life, you encounter a sort of sensory overload. It’s often what first time parachutists experience.

The Googleplex is a web of interlocking buildings. Some old. Some new. All have a history.

The people we walked past all appeared normal. Smiling. But normal in a rocket scientist sort of way. There are offices everywhere and all are occupied by more than one person. There are flat panel monitors at each desk and apparently its the norm to have 2, if not 3. Some deluded individuals had 4 - and my host and I laughed at the fact that we both thought that these people might need to really get a life.

At Google, there is no corporate policy regarding the computing platform you use. If you want a Mac, then a Mac it is. If you want a PC, then knock yourself out.

We walked past what I thought was a full blown Radio Shack (or Tandy as we know them). But it wasnt. It was Google’s version of a Helpdesk. They are scattered all over the place.

In a typical corporate environment, if you have a problem with your PC or phone or internet connection - you have to call a number or navigate your way via the intranet to some obscure helpdesk destination. You open a ticket. The people who answer the phone or your email are completely devoid of any social skill. Management decided long ago that it was unwise to let these people roam freely around the enterprise, because most of them look like they just killed their parents. Or something like this.

If you’re lucky, they’ll get to your problem by the end of the week. And forget about any hardware issues. Thats another department. And a mountain of forms, business cases and in some cases, begging (or at least a good grovel).

Google, as you would expect, approach this part of their business differently. If your computer shits itself, if you need a set of audio speakers or headphones or another monitor, you simply walk to the “shop” and tell the human behind the counter what you want. It’s that simple. There’s no forms, no business case, no “his screen is bigger than mine” baloney. You simply just get the tools you need to do the job you have to do.

Sometimes, because of the insane growth trajectory, Google’s HR folks have to move entire teams of people. One day you go home from work, and the next morning you’ll find that you’re in a new part of the building. But you didn’t have to lift a finger or worry about a thing. Everything has been taken care of.

Then there’s the food.

Much is written about this part of Google’s business. I always thought, “So what, they provide free lunches and maybe there’s a coke machine or 2 spread around the building…” Thats nothing new. Hell, we have a freely stocked coke machine, an expresso machine and pick up the meal tabs for all our staff too.

But, the whole concept of eating and feeding the team at Google is much, much more than pure “theatre” (I spelled it my way, ok).

There are 14 kitchens across the campus. And all cultures are catered for. Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Vegitarian, Western - just about anything you can think of, the chefs at Google will make. Then there are the mini kitchens. Meals are available from 7am to 9pm. Staff can feed their families if they want. There is food to go. Food to eat in. Food to take back to your desk. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. No stone has been left unturned to make sure the engine room of Google stays functioning. And I can promise you, no expense spared. Every type of health food (including fresh fruit), more different coffees than Starbucks, bottled water from far off places, its all there. And people are smiling.

We walked past the head chef’s office. I doubt if the guy ever has to fill in a budget request. I noticed that even the people who work in the kitchen are proud of what they are a part of. And so they should be.

It truly is something you have to see to believe. Googlers talk about the “Google 20″, which refers to the 2o odd pounds you gain in your first month on the job. I believed it.

We kept walking. I had to stop myself salivating as we walked past the kitchens. It was 11.30 in the morning - the place was humming.

There are breakout and meeting rooms everywhere, places designed especially for kids (if you need to bring them to work, Google takes care of this). Even details like rooms full of washing machines and dryers so staff can take care of the mundane tasks. As we walked past, all the machines were in full swing. In each lobby, or at the foot of most stairwells, is a big bin where you dump your clothes to be drycleaned or shoes to be repaired. Staff dont have to pay for any of this. Which actually makes sense.

Google’s belief is that if you take care of all the “hygiene” factors at work, then that creates a more positive work environment and this in turn, creates higher productivity. Which is clearly does.

We walked past a big auditorium. My host casually mentioned that last week, Hilary Clinton addressed the staff here. And next week, some weird little bald guy called Seth Godin was stopping by.

When Google hosts outside guests, there is a commercial audio visual production team that swings into action. As you would expect, this is not a company, nor a series of buildings, that is light on technology.

My visit, like all good things, eventually came to end. I cant (actually wont) tell you why I was there or who I was meeting, but suffice to say, I couldn’t have had a better time or a better tour guide.

But I will tell you that, as an outsider who was invited into the Googleplex, I am eternally grateful for the opportunity. Google, like any company has its flaws. I even admit this. But its physical environment is not one of them.

As my host explained in a way I just couldn’t, the Googleplex is a social experiment. It’s not just what happens when you spend in a way and on things that would be regarded by many as foolish. Or even irresponsible.

Yes, there were people riding around on electric scooters, there were people playing volleyball outside, some guy was swimming in a lap pool (with a lifeguard watching, I kid you not). And there was the food. And the kitchens. And the technology. And signs inviting staff to come and listen to what was going on with the “20% time” of a group of people.

There are a lot of reasons why Google is phenomenally successful. The Googleplex, and the attention to detail behind it, is clearly one of them.

It’s been a long week, meeting some very talented web folks scattered across the US and Canada. The visit to Google, each and every time I re-count it, makes the trip all the more worthwhile.

I wish you could have been there…

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 at 11:49 am and is filed under Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.