Google brand of growth takes root in Kendall Sq.
Local office cites rich talent pool
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | May 31, 2007
CAMBRIDGE -- A favorite parlor game in Greater Boston technology circles has been guessing which area company will grow up to be the next Google Inc., the Silicon Valley search provider that has become the behemoth of the Internet economy.
But if a team of Kendall Square techies has its way, the next Google in the Boston area will be Google itself.
The company, which had just two engineers and a handful of advertising sales people in Boston at the end of 2005, dramatically expanded its operations here in February to work on projects such as extending search to digital books and cellphones, and to tap the expertise of area universities and start - ups. For its new staff of 50, Google leased the seventh floor of the One Broadway office building.
And the Googlers on the Charles, like their colleagues at the Googleplex campus in Mountain View, Calif., are in growth mode, planning to double again by year's end.
Sales people based here sell advertising and customized search services to large businesses, while engineers work with other Googlers around the world on projects such as developing search applications for cell phones, scanning books into searchable formats, integrating video clips into Google's search engine, and improving the company's data storage infrastructure.
Stephen Vinter, an engineer who joined Google three months ago as "site director" in charge of developing the 18,000-square-foot office, said that its proximity to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other area colleges and universities means the Cambridge office can draw from a rich pool of technical talent.
Looking forward, he said his goal is to pioneer new Google technologies from Kendall Square.
"There's a sense that we have to prove ourselves on this site," Vinter said.
While the company doesn't break down employment at its operations across the country, officials say the Boston office is smaller then Google's flagship advertising sales office in New York and a regional office located in Kirkland, Wash., in the shadow of arch rival Microsoft Corp. But the local Googlers insist it has the potential for rapid growth. Though their current space can accommodate about 100 employees, Vinter has already begun scouting for additional real estate in the area.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin , neither of whom has Boston ties, have yet to visit the new office here, which is painted in the company's primary colors of red, yellow, blue, and green, stocked with free food, and decorated with lava lamps, but also features life-size images of Boston sports heroes Tom Brady and David Ortiz.
Other top Googlers, including chief executive Eric Schmidt , who owns a home on Nantucket and has a strong network of contacts in the Boston high-tech industry, have spoken at area technology events. Dave Girouard , the Google vice president and general manager of enterprise, who grew up in Reading, keynoted the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council last January.
Council president Joyce Plotkin said the local Google office has kept a low profile so far. "They're getting the lay of the land," she said. "That's been the pattern with West Coast companies. They come in and try to figure out the landscape and where they can best put their efforts."
While the Boston area has long been one of the leading US technology hubs, and almost every big high-tech company has a presence here, Google gained its foothold almost by accident.
Nearly two years ago, Google acquired Android Inc., a cell phone software company, for an undisclosed sum. Although the company was based in Palo Alto, Calif., one of its co founders, Rich Miner , worked remotely from Boston. Miner is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Wirefire Communications Inc., a maker of voice-activated wireless phone controls. Google's executives wanted Miner to work for them, but Miner wanted to remain in Boston.
"I was able to convince the executives that it didn't make sense for Google not to have a Boston office, given all the technology companies and all the universities here," he recalled.
Miner said he had another motive as well: infusing fresh energy into the Boston - area technology scene, which has failed to spawn the kinds of large players in the current high-tech era that it produced in the past. The giants of the Internet age -- Google, Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc., and Amazon.com -- reside on the West Coast. But the Google outpost in Cambridge has the potential to grow into a significant engineering and research center, Miner said.
"I'm pretty concerned with what I consider to be the breakdown of Boston's high-tech ecosystem," Miner said. "You have universities here, and you have venture capital. But you need large companies to seed the region with talented engineers and managers."
About the time Miner came aboard, Google engineer Fay Chang asked to transfer from the company's New York office to Boston, where her husband was an MIT professor. At first she worked from her home in the area, but later joined Miner and two others in a small room at One Broadway leased from Cambridge Innovation Center, an incubator that provides space for high-tech start - ups, until Google moved to the larger Broadway quarters.
More than half the Cambridge engineers have doctorates, several from MIT or other area colleges, and many are attracted by Google's engineering focus.
"Most companies will tell you engineering is real important, but [the companies'] decisions are made by someone else," said Google engineer Leonidas Kontothanassis . "Here the decisions are made by engineers, and everybody else has to sell what they develop."
One of the largest groups in the Cambridge office plays a lead role in Google Books, a program that converts books to digital form through a scanning technology called optical character recognition.
"There are around 100 million books on the planet," estimated engineer Jon Orwant , a member of the technical staff. "What we're trying to do is scan as many of them as we can."
Though the office has imported some of Google's quirky culture, offering game nights, exercise balls, and the indispensable foosball table, it has a less ostentatious feel than the Googleplex campus in California. For now, this is a small-company environment where engineers and sales people lunch together, not unlike Google's start - up days.
But the talk is all about expansion.
"We're looking for as many good people as we can get in the door," Vinter said.
Robert Weisman can be reached at [email protected].
Local office cites rich talent pool
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | May 31, 2007
CAMBRIDGE -- A favorite parlor game in Greater Boston technology circles has been guessing which area company will grow up to be the next Google Inc., the Silicon Valley search provider that has become the behemoth of the Internet economy.
But if a team of Kendall Square techies has its way, the next Google in the Boston area will be Google itself.
The company, which had just two engineers and a handful of advertising sales people in Boston at the end of 2005, dramatically expanded its operations here in February to work on projects such as extending search to digital books and cellphones, and to tap the expertise of area universities and start - ups. For its new staff of 50, Google leased the seventh floor of the One Broadway office building.
And the Googlers on the Charles, like their colleagues at the Googleplex campus in Mountain View, Calif., are in growth mode, planning to double again by year's end.
Sales people based here sell advertising and customized search services to large businesses, while engineers work with other Googlers around the world on projects such as developing search applications for cell phones, scanning books into searchable formats, integrating video clips into Google's search engine, and improving the company's data storage infrastructure.
Stephen Vinter, an engineer who joined Google three months ago as "site director" in charge of developing the 18,000-square-foot office, said that its proximity to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other area colleges and universities means the Cambridge office can draw from a rich pool of technical talent.
Looking forward, he said his goal is to pioneer new Google technologies from Kendall Square.
"There's a sense that we have to prove ourselves on this site," Vinter said.
While the company doesn't break down employment at its operations across the country, officials say the Boston office is smaller then Google's flagship advertising sales office in New York and a regional office located in Kirkland, Wash., in the shadow of arch rival Microsoft Corp. But the local Googlers insist it has the potential for rapid growth. Though their current space can accommodate about 100 employees, Vinter has already begun scouting for additional real estate in the area.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin , neither of whom has Boston ties, have yet to visit the new office here, which is painted in the company's primary colors of red, yellow, blue, and green, stocked with free food, and decorated with lava lamps, but also features life-size images of Boston sports heroes Tom Brady and David Ortiz.
Other top Googlers, including chief executive Eric Schmidt , who owns a home on Nantucket and has a strong network of contacts in the Boston high-tech industry, have spoken at area technology events. Dave Girouard , the Google vice president and general manager of enterprise, who grew up in Reading, keynoted the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council last January.
Council president Joyce Plotkin said the local Google office has kept a low profile so far. "They're getting the lay of the land," she said. "That's been the pattern with West Coast companies. They come in and try to figure out the landscape and where they can best put their efforts."
While the Boston area has long been one of the leading US technology hubs, and almost every big high-tech company has a presence here, Google gained its foothold almost by accident.
Nearly two years ago, Google acquired Android Inc., a cell phone software company, for an undisclosed sum. Although the company was based in Palo Alto, Calif., one of its co founders, Rich Miner , worked remotely from Boston. Miner is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Wirefire Communications Inc., a maker of voice-activated wireless phone controls. Google's executives wanted Miner to work for them, but Miner wanted to remain in Boston.
"I was able to convince the executives that it didn't make sense for Google not to have a Boston office, given all the technology companies and all the universities here," he recalled.
Miner said he had another motive as well: infusing fresh energy into the Boston - area technology scene, which has failed to spawn the kinds of large players in the current high-tech era that it produced in the past. The giants of the Internet age -- Google, Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc., and Amazon.com -- reside on the West Coast. But the Google outpost in Cambridge has the potential to grow into a significant engineering and research center, Miner said.
"I'm pretty concerned with what I consider to be the breakdown of Boston's high-tech ecosystem," Miner said. "You have universities here, and you have venture capital. But you need large companies to seed the region with talented engineers and managers."
About the time Miner came aboard, Google engineer Fay Chang asked to transfer from the company's New York office to Boston, where her husband was an MIT professor. At first she worked from her home in the area, but later joined Miner and two others in a small room at One Broadway leased from Cambridge Innovation Center, an incubator that provides space for high-tech start - ups, until Google moved to the larger Broadway quarters.
More than half the Cambridge engineers have doctorates, several from MIT or other area colleges, and many are attracted by Google's engineering focus.
"Most companies will tell you engineering is real important, but [the companies'] decisions are made by someone else," said Google engineer Leonidas Kontothanassis . "Here the decisions are made by engineers, and everybody else has to sell what they develop."
One of the largest groups in the Cambridge office plays a lead role in Google Books, a program that converts books to digital form through a scanning technology called optical character recognition.
"There are around 100 million books on the planet," estimated engineer Jon Orwant , a member of the technical staff. "What we're trying to do is scan as many of them as we can."
Though the office has imported some of Google's quirky culture, offering game nights, exercise balls, and the indispensable foosball table, it has a less ostentatious feel than the Googleplex campus in California. For now, this is a small-company environment where engineers and sales people lunch together, not unlike Google's start - up days.
But the talk is all about expansion.
"We're looking for as many good people as we can get in the door," Vinter said.
Robert Weisman can be reached at [email protected].
