Never has a Silicon Valley company risen so fast. Only nine years after its inception and three years after going public,
Google is the third-most-valuable tech company, behind No. 1 Microsoft Corp. and No. 2 Cisco Systems Inc., thanks to its search engine and other Web services that in its second fiscal quarter generated an average of $43 million in revenue each day.Since 2004, Google has quintupled its global workforce to nearly 14,000. The modern headquarters here, dubbed the Googleplex, is filled with pets, colorful exercise balls to sit on and nearly every service imaginable.
To many in Mountain View, Google has become a primary source of economic aid, curiosity, inspiration and pride.
After four years of city budget cuts and hiring freezes, Google has helped fuel an economic renaissance. The effect is difficult to quantify, officials say, in part because Google's contributions are growing faster than city tax rolls can reflect.
Two years ago, Google ranked 21st in Santa Clara County for assessed business property -- computers, fax machines and other taxable business equipment.
Today it's fourth, behind only Cisco, Intel Corp. and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.The Internet giant restored corporate leadership after the dot-com bust,
attracting smaller companies that wanted to be close to greatness. Its constant quest for cubicle space has helped shrink the commercial vacancy rate to 10% from nearly 30%.
Google bought more property in the county last year than anyone except for three commercial real estate firms. It's in talks with the city to build a hotel and conference center on the Google side of town, which would help Mountain View realize a long-held dream.
"Google is what pulled us through," said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a regional planning group.
The company also has injected Mountain View, which sits almost 40 miles southeast of San Francisco, with the kind of energy usually associated with a liberal arts college. Googlers, as they're known, toss Frisbees, glide around campus on bicycles sporting bright orange safety flags and pedal together on company-provided seven-seaters while discussing software code. Tourists snap pictures in front of the Googleplex.
Locals enjoy pranking Google. Public relations firm Eastwick Communications stages team-building contests that challenge employees to sneak into Google's free cafeteria. Bernadette Albrecht, a human resources consultant at Eastwick, won a $50 gift certificate by asking a biking Googler to give her his orange flag.
"He hesitated, but he said they replace them all the time," Albrecht said.
But Mountain View and Google are grappling with town-and-gown issues. Some influential Mountain View residents grumble that
Google hasn't been a model corporate citizen: It has escalated the pain of rush hour, displaced small companies to make room for its own troops and raised a ruckus by striking an unusual deal for
Google's billionaire cofounders to land their private planes at NASA's nearby Moffett Federal Airfield.http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/01/business/fi-google1A foole vttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.
- King James Version (1611)
