The Googleplex is the company headquarters for Google, Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, near San Jose. The name Googleplex is a play on words, being a combination of the words Google and complex, and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large number 1010100.
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Facilities and history
The four core buildings, totaling 506,317 ft² (47,038 m²), were built for and originally occupied by SGI. They were leased by Google beginning in 2003.[1] In June 2006, Google purchased the property from Silicon Graphics for $319 million.[2] Although the buildings are of relatively low height, the complex covers a large area. The interior of the headquarters is furnished with items like shade lamps and giant rubber balls. The lobby contains a piano and a projection of current live Google search queries. The facilities include a gym (Building 40), free laundry rooms (Buildings 40 and 42), two small swimming pools, a sand volleyball court, and more than a dozen cafeterias of diverse selection. Google has even installed replicas of SpaceShipOne and a dinosaur skeleton.[3] In late 2006, the company announced plans to install a series of solar panels, capable of producing 1.6 megawatts of electricity, by the following spring. It is believed that this could be the largest such installation in the country. About 30 percent of the Googleplex's electricity needs will be fulfilled by this project, with the remainder being purchased.[4] About one third of the panels will be in the form of "solar trees" mounted on poles above parking lots, with the remainder placed on rooftops. [5] The solar panel project went online on 18 June 2007. As of 21 June 2007 Google has installed over 90% of the 9,212 solar panels that comprise the 1.6 megawatt project. [6]
Location
The Googleplex is located between Charleston Road, Amphitheatre Parkway, and Shoreline Boulevard in north Mountain View, California close to the Shoreline Park wetlands. Employees living in San Francisco or the East Bay may take a wifi-enabled Google subsidized shuttle to and from work. It is powered by domestically grown and processed biodiesel.[7]
Neighbors of the Googleplex include ALZA Plaza and the Mozilla Foundation to the west; Shoreline Amphitheatre to the north; Intuit to the northwest and Century Theatres, Microsoft Corporation's Silicon Valley research complex, and the Computer History Museum to the south. Moffett Field lies nearby to the east. In September 2007, NASA revealed that Google's founders had secured access to Moffett Field for their Boeing 767 and two Gulfstream Vs by paying a $1.3 million fee and allowing NASA to use the aircraft for scientific expeditions.
Other uses of the word
Prior to 7 September 1998
Googleplex (exact spelling) is also the abbreviated name of a very powerful computer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979, ISBN 0-330-25864-8), a novel by Douglas Adams. It was also carried in the script[8] for the episode broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 29 March 1978, and contained in the television version on 26 January 1981 on BBC Two. In chapter 25 of the novel, Fook asks Deep Thought anxiously:
| “ | 'And are you not,' said Fook leaning anxiously forward, 'a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta¹ sand blizzard?' 'A five week sand blizzard? You ask this of me who has contemplated the very vectors of the atoms in the Big Bang itself? Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff.' |
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References
- ^ Olsen, Stefanie. "Google's movin' on up", CNET News.com, CNET Networks, Inc., 2003-07-13. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
- ^ Mills, Elinor. "Google buying its Mountain View, Calif., property", CNET News.com, CNET Networks, Inc., 2006-06-14. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
- ^ Weinberg, Nathan. "Yes, Google Has A Dinosaur", InsideGoogle, 2007-01-22. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
- ^ Baker, David. "Now Google sets sights on solar system", San Francisco Chronicle, 2006-10-17, pp. C-1. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
- ^ Graham, Marty. "Google Plants Solar Trees", Wired News, 2006-12-13. Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
- ^ http://www.google.com/corporate/solarpanels/home
- ^ Spivack, Cari (2004-09-13). Worth the drive. Official Google Blog. Google, Inc.. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
- ^ a b The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts. Douglas Adams, edited by Geoffrey Perkins. Pan Books, London. 1985. ISBN 0-330-29288-9
External links
- Life in the Googleplex Photo Essay
- The Google Culture
- A Glimpse Inside Google - Googlers at work & play
- Google Quick Information
- Googleplex at WikiMapia
- A visual tour of Google's NYC HQ
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