‘Googly’ work amenities rival some holiday resorts

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: It's amazing that Google employees can get any work done. Between the three daily catered meals, on-site massage therapist, free gym membership and game room (complete with air hockey, darts and Foosball), Google’s new development centre in Seattle’s Fremont neighbourhood boasts amenities that rival some resorts.

Just in case there aren’t enough entertainment options, kayaks are available so staffers can go for a mid-day paddle on the nearby Lake Washington Ship Canal. There’s even a “quiet room”—complete with lava lamp, massage chair and wonderful views of the water—where Google employees can presumably dream up the next great Internet application while their muscles are relaxed.

Google opened the Seattle development centre in October 2007 and has already hired about 75 people to work there. It will focus on systems development, the back-end infrastructure that makes the company’s applications hum, but also has projects going on in Web site testing and mapping.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet search giant, which also has a sales office in Fremont and a development centre in Kirkland, pulled back the covers on the new Seattle office to the media and members of the technology industry Tuesday.

The message was clear. Google, which is aggressively competing with Amazon.com, Microsoft and hundreds of start-ups for smart people, wants to portray itself as a fun place to work that does things a little differently. In the lexicon of the Internet company, that new approach to business is called Googly — a word that was uttered throughout the tour and demonstration.

The war for talent was on the minds of Google executives. Brian Bershad, the University of Washington computer science professor who was picked to lead the new Seattle office about three months ago, avoided the topic when asked how the company competes against Microsoft and others.

“We have a tremendous number of really strong people who have come out of UW who are here at Google today. Where else they may have chosen to go, I have not had that conversation.”

But Shiva Shivakumar, vice president of engineering at Google, quickly followed up on that comment. “We have not lost too many to other companies in the area,” Shivakumar said to laughs from the crowd.

Bershad added: “That’s a slightly stronger way of putting it.” And he noted that the company attracts people from all over the world. “People come to Google. We don’t so much take from other employers,” he said.