Google is hundreds (some say 600 some say 700 some say more, the number is unimportant because it grows so quickly) of innocuous looking data centers peppered around the world. I've seen a few of them. Been inside one or two. They are as romantic as the blank beige phone company CO down the block with the quaint Bell logo on the side, no windows, signs or markings. Welcome to The Google.

The adoration expressed in this post stands in stark contrast to the sober yet incisive analysis Leonard usually employs. It's one thing to comment on how Google's cozy culture and lifestyle squeeze out more geek hours; it's another thing to nearly call Google the information messiah. Frankly, this all sounds more like the work of a fan-boy than that of an even-handed critic.

In my view, a backlash against Google isn't far off. It's difficult to ignore that they've chosen to comply with China's censorship laws, when their search tools could, if used to their fullest extent, potentially catalyze China's next step towards democracy. (Yes, I realize that this *could* indeed make them truly an information messiah.) Also, Google is stepping out of search and into fields that will put other companies out of business: Google Maps is excellent, of course, but even more devastating is that Google's search profitability means that Maps doesn't have to be profitable; in the meantime, Mapquest is fading away. Lastly, and perhaps least importantly, does anyone else think it's simply gross that practically every other web page is now peppered with Google ads?

I could go on, but writing at such length about subjects like the implications of Google's expansion isn't my job -- it's Cohen's, and I hope that he'll return to it.

Oi, it's not just Mountain View! I'm a Google employee in New York and it's pretty blissful here too if you can take the long hours, but let's face it, the reason you get this job is you actually love writing computer programs.

As for the negative side, well, I personally have a lot of trouble with corporations in general. There's so much waste (Google is no worse than any other, but not much better). The corporate world is extremely white and male (Google tries very hard but IMHO it's hard for women and minorities because they are hampered by a wretched educational system right out of the gate.)

But at least Google really tries to do the right thing. It's the first place I've worked where a moral argument ("this is the wrong thing to do") is irrefutable. I can't comment on the China thing, but I'd note that China has specific laws that must be complied with to do business in China; the idea that any company could break Chinese laws and continue to have a presence there is ridiculous.

I'm not proud to be working for a large Western corporation, but that said, I'm proud to be working for Google specifically.

Apple was a true computer , integrated , intuitive and reliable. Noone bothered to write viruses for Apple , it semed off limiits , another world.

Now all I see are Ipods that don't have replaceable batteries, Iphones the same. I see smooth plastic gottahaves that i can't relate to , made in China, with no ecological planning.

Now I see Gooogle going after Double Click and a dark shadow crosses my imagination. I wonder , have they sold out yet, are they part of the dark side like microsoft with back doors and tracking code so invasive that they are the cookies and milk I remember as a child.

It's not good or bad. It's not a fond memory from your childhood (2 years ago was it?). It's a tool. I for one think that Google typically gets it right. They provide a usable functional service that doesn't get in the way of itself. Any of you use Google SMS? It's a godsend. Any of you use Google's free SMS send to phone? Ditto. The problem with you people is you demand first and foremost everything to rank itself on the Salon scale of moral goodness, regardless of what it does. Does that sparkplug company save Darfur refugees? Check. Let's use those sparkplugs. How dumb is that?

Tom, how the devil does the "wretched educational system" hamper women?

"...hard for women and minorities because they are hampered by a wretched educational system..."

So somehow white males can succeed despite the "wretched educational system"? Right off the bat you assume that the problem is outside of the company so there's nothing Google can do about it. That's the mentality that leads to the mostly white workforce.

People tend to hire people that look like them and Google is no exception. Everything, from the schools Google is reported to favor, to the phone screens, to the interviewers themselves, tends to filter out applicants to the point where it's mostly white males getting hired. As a minority myself, I've seen it first hand and my wife, also a techie, has too. We haven't interviewed at Google but I can't see how they would differ from other tech companies. I'd actually be very surprised if I saw a workforce at a tech company that wasn't mostly white males.

"The internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it". I can't remember who actually coined the expression. It's too laughable to be worth attaching a name to, because as we've seen in Burma, authoritarianism treats the internet as a cancer and eradicates it.

Maybe, someday, companies like Google might have some kind of minor impact on global politics. But for that to happen, Google would have to aquire real political power. The thought of that happening scares the living daylights out of me.

...http://blogs.salon.com/0002296/2007/09/18.html

So, it is true. Google is now the leading and hopeful one, and Mountain View is the perfect place to start such corporation. Wish all kinds of luck to Google and its people! Would be happy to jump one or one and half generations back and to work for Google, as I used to then. It slightly reminds me " N.E.E. CHAVO' and "N.E.E. KAVO". Maybe, those from my generation, who liked brothers Strygazky books would understand what I am talking about.