Webmission Diary: Trips to the Googleplex and other Enterprise Giants
As a skeptical Brit I needed to be convinced this is for real and I am. You cannot help be impressed by the Googleplex. Gourmet food is never less than 100 yards from a Googler, whilst 20% of the working week is spent on idea formulation and innovation. Never have I seen so many happy people going about their work in a company, which seems to have created a workplace employees don’t want to leave at night. The Corporate Visit hosting my fellow WebMissionaries was everything a one hour visit should be – a bit about company culture and history, vision for the future, a look around the campus and then a cheery goodbye.
I forgot that the Google story is as much about tin as it is software. The picture, which is one of their old server racks, demonstrates that a big part of the company’s ‘secret sauce’ is in fact the way they can network computers together in an incredibly low cost way, squeezing 4 CPU’s into a single rack. When the question of energy per search came up there was some shuffling (clearly we need to watch this space as Google figure out how to boost their green credentials.)
Disappointingly there was little mention of the newly launched Google Venture Fund announced last night, which was a surprise as the room was full of some of the UK’s brightest Web 2.0 companies.
The dinosaur, which founder Larry bought at some auction for the enjoyment of his staff, was apt because the visit which followed illustrated how companies who were once the innovator, quickly become rigid, inflexible and unwieldy as they seek to protect their market leadership. Our presentation was nothing more than an explanation as to how complex this large company has now become to navigate. No mention of future vision, no glimpse of future product, no guided tour. That was a shame…
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