[Animo]

Above Google, Mountain View, California by cocoi_m, on Flickr

 

[Animo]

Google changing the kinds of facts we remember, study finds

By Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A new study confirms it: Google is altering your brain. More precisely, our growing dependence on the Internet has changed how — and what — our brains choose to remember.

When we know where to find information, we're less likely to remember it — an amnesia dubbed "The Google Effect" by a team led by psychologist Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University.

Goodbye, soul-searching; hello, facts-at-fingertips.

 

[Animo]

Google earnings, takeovers lift US stocks

NEW YORK—US stocks rose Friday after a blockbuster earnings report from Google and a pair of multibillion-dollar takeover bids helped overshadow the debt-ceiling debacle in Washington.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 42.61 points (0.34 percent) to close at 12,479.73.

The broader S&P 500 climbed 7.27 points (0.56 percent) to 1,316.14, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 27.13 points (0.98 percent) to close at 2,789.80.

Google pushed up the Nasdaq, rising 13.0 percent after it reported late Thursday that its second-quarter net income climbed to $2.51 billion on record-high revenue of more than $9 billion.

US billionaire investor Carl Icahn made an unsolicited offer to buy Clorox in a deal valued at $12.6 billion, pushing Clorox stock up 8.9 percent.

In another major deal, Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton unveiled a $12.1 billion takeover of US natural gas firm Petrohawk Energy Corp., leading Petrohawk’s shares to skyrocket 62.5 percent.

The Google, Clorox and Petrohawk news “certainly set a positive tone to start the day,” said Michael James, senior equity trader with Wedbush Morgan Securities.

“There are still unresolved issues in Europe regarding the sovereign debt issues and the debt ceiling talks (in Washington). It is going to be a weight on the market limiting upside until it gets resolved,” James added.

US President Barack Obama warned of economic “Armageddon” if Democrats and Republicans fail to reach a deal to raise the federal government’s debt limit to avert a potentially disastrous default by August 2.

Europe’s economic picture improved slightly after the European Union’s bank regulator announced that only eight of 91 banks had flunked the latest round of stress tests, fewer than expected.

Shares of Citigroup sank 1.6 percent after the banking giant released its second-quarter earnings.

Citigroup’s net income increased to $3.3 billion in the April-June period, up 24 percent from the same period last year, but its stock sank after the company said its expenses this year would be higher than forecast.

Toy-maker Mattel, creator of the Barbie doll, gained 1.9 percent after reporting that second-quarter net income grew 56 percent from the same period last year.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.91 percent from 2.94 percent late Thursday, while that on the 30-year bond climbed to 4.25 percent from 4.24 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

 

[Animo]

Google: 6 billion installed apps on Android

By Emil Protalinski, TechSpot.com
Published: July 15, 2011, 5:00 PM EST

During Google's second quarter earnings call yesterday, the company announced it has now seen 6 billion apps installed on Android. The search giant also noted that Android was now seeing 550,000 device activations per day, up from 500,000 just over two weeks ago.

It took Google 20 months to reach the 1 billion apps installed on the Android platform. Five months later, the company had hit the 2 billion apps installed milestone. Two months later, the company was at 3 billion apps installed. That last milestone was reached three months ago. In other words, the company is seeing some 1 billion apps downloaded every month.

Because Android is open, however, the platform's users can download apps from more than one app store. For example, Amazon launched its own Android App Store just last month.

To put the 6 billion number into perspective, Apple announced earlier this month that it had seen 15 billion downloaded apps on iOS. Apple saw 1 billion apps downloaded in April 2009. In April 2011, the company passed the 10 billion apps downloaded mark. While Apple's app downloads are growing, Google's app downloads are not only growing, but they are accelerating as well.

In short, because Android phone sales are growing so quickly, Google's app downloads are going to soon catch Apple's numbers. That's impressive, given that Google's Android Market has over 200,000 apps as of December 2010 while Apple's App Store has over 300,000 apps as of September 2010. It's also expected that the number of apps for Android will eventually pass the number of apps available for iOS.

 

[Animo]

Google's Growth Unsettles Mountain View

MOUNTAIN VIEW—Google Inc. is the single largest contributor to the coffers of Mountain View, where it is based. But as the Web giant expands its physical footprint and seeks to build new offices, housing and infrastructure, the city government is pushing back.

Earlier this month several city council members criticized a proposal by Google to build bridges over a creek that separates existing offices from land it leased from a federal agency. Starting in 2013, Google plans to construct up to 1.2 million square feet of buildings on the land, including offices, recreation facilities and corporate housing.

The new development will extend the Google campus into the leased land, crossing public trails along Stevens Creek that are used by commuters and outdoor enthusiasts. While the trail will remain public after Google's expansion, council members said at a recent hearing they were concerned about the need to relocate part of the trail due to the construction of the bridges, among other things. The topic will be revisited in future hearings.

Such questioning of Google's plans might become more common. In what would be a first for Google, the company has signaled it wants to tear down some of its existing buildings and replace them with denser ones as well as with corporate housing. Google leases or owns more than four million square feet of office space in Mountain View, according to the city.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...512662232.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews

 

[azza-bazoo]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...512662232.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews

That story would be hilarious if it weren't so sad. The Stevens Creek trail is nice enough, but suffers from poor connections to nearby streets; Google proposes improving them, and the city objects?

Elsewhere in the article it mentions a Google plan to demolish buildings and put up slightly more dense ones (not very dense, it's still a suburban office park, but an improvement on the two-storey 1970s trash that's there) ... and the councilor they quote complains about parkland nearby. Sigh.

I guess these complaints aren't new, though: http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=2527

 

[Animo]

Google to build sustainable Headquarters in Mountain View with Ingenhoven Architects

The award winning sustainable German architecture firm, Ingenhoven Architects, has been hired by Google Inc to design their new headquarters in Mountain View, California. Expected to begin construction in 2012, Ingenhoven approached the design with the idea that ‘the architecture should be an expression of the „corporate culture” and at the same time a model for sustainable architecture in the broadest sense surpassing the LEED-Platinum-Standards with its holistic concept’. Jordan Newman, a Google spokesman shared about Ingenhoven, “we’ve asked them to build the most green, sustainable building possible.”

Google’s offices in Milan, previously featured on ArchDaily can be viewed here. More about this exciting news from the architects following the break.


The rise of Google Inc. Is a phenomenal success story that has just begun. More than 80% of all searches world-wide are done using Google. The growth of the company is mirrored in the growth of the Google Campus in Mountain View/California, the Headquarters of Google on Charleston Park. Google is proud of its corporate culture and offers attractive workplaces in order to attract the best talents from all over the world. Google wants to build a showcase sustainable building. On the adjacent site between Charleston Road and Shoreline Boulevard a large new building will be built for Google. The site demands a building with autarkic geometry. As part of an international selection process ingenhoven architects won the commission to design the new HQ. The client’s brief was simple: It should be the best and „greenest” building in the world!

The new building will be home for 2.500-3.000 engineers and scientists as well as the Headquarters. The Google Headquarters is the first project for ingenhoven architects in the US and Google builds for itself for the first time. Google‘s success depends on engineers, inventors mathematicians, IT-experts and scientists of all kinds. The building should reflect their different approaches and enhance convenience and productivity. The building will be „lively, fresh, simple and flexible” and offer healthy, communicative and effective workplaces and have „buzz“.

Sustainable and ecologically oriented architecture is for Ingenhoven Architects a negotiated agreement. All our projects are orientated on international standards, like LEED, BREEAM, ASHRAE, Swiss Minergy, European Standard 2000 or DGNB, whose founding member we are.

The use of regenerative energies and resources like geothermal energy and rainwater plays an important role in our concepts and so the intensive integration of daylight as well a natural ventilation of buildings. With a minimum consumption of energy and resources we aim the highest degree of utilization comfort.

http://www.archdaily.com/157521/google-to-build-headquarters-in-mountain-view/

 

[desertpunk]

New Details Emerge for Google's Mountain View Campus

Google has been very hush-hush when it comes to details of its new 1.1 million sq. ft. campus currently under construction in Mountain View, but we now know some ultra-green features for the mega-project that will be online in 2015. The 42-acre site will be located very close to sensitive wetlands, so Google will only be covering 5 percent of the land with office space, and reserving a full 15 percent to wetland recovery areas. The wetlands will be accessible to employees "which executives see as a potential source of inspiration and education."

Google hopes to keep travel time between any two locations on the campus under three minutes. To assist in this they will be installing an elevated bicycle track that will connect all nine buildings together in "an infinity loop," where one can "keep circling to your heart's content." Alternative modes of travel will be a theme at the new Googleplex, as cars will also be taking a secondary role. Only around 2,200 parking spaces will be built for the estimated 4,000 employees to work on the campus. A large portion of those spaces will be housed underground, but the rest will be located at a few surface parking lots. These lots, Google hopes, will be removed once more people embrace alternative ways of commuting to work. The project is chock-full of additional green features and is aiming for the highest possible LEED rating: platinum.

 

[desertpunk]

Google Puts Bayview Campus Construction On Hold

Google Inc. is postponing construction on its Bayview campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.

Google headquarters Mountain ViewThe company has told its contractors and construction workers at the site to come back in a year, citing design issues with the campus as it now is conceived. Approximately 100 workers were already on the job, and site work was underway, according to a source with immediate knowledge of the project.

In a prepared statement, a Google spokesperson said, “We want to make our Bay View campus a terrific and environmentally sustainable place for Googlers to work. To make sure we get it right, we’re being thoughtful in our design process.”

In August, the Mountain View-based company selected DPR Construction and Turner Construction Co. to build the 1.1 million-square-foot campus at the NASA site. The offices are expected to accommodate as many as 5,000 workers.

 

[desertpunk]

Google Shares Top $1,000

 

[desertpunk]

Google Eyeing Mission Bay for San Francisco Move?

Brace yourselves: rumor has it that Google is planning a "blockbuster San Francisco real estate play that would shake the San Francisco market up for a long time." Current speculations have Google eyeing 14 acres of land in Mission Bay, which is could yield enough office space to house approximately 8,000 search-engine employees.

A move to The City would come on the heels of other urban expansions: Google recently signed a deal for an additional 360K square feet of space in Manhattan, and nearly 600K additional square feet in Chicago.

Mission Bay isn't the only potential target for Google - they also may be interested in the Transbay Tower. Regardless of which property they take, just imagine what happens when their newly-urban employees start looking for apartments.

 

[pesto]

Hard to believe. With supposed projects of equal size in Mt. View and at the SJ Airport? I guess this would play out over some period of time or maybe the reputed tenant in SJ is really someone else.

Transbay Tower would be a real change of pace since Google has a thing about low-rise with connecting bridges, which supposedly allows for frequent and easy interaction.

 

[Cal_Escapee]

Google has a thing about low-rise with connecting bridges, which supposedly allows for frequent and easy interaction.

This is the alternative rumor: The campus Salesforce.com owns the land and entitlements for, but won't be using, in Mission Bay:

All images: http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisc...or-mission-bay-campus/attachment/salesforce6/

Only internal sky bridges.

 

[surrill]

So is this for a new HQ or just extra space needed in the city? If it's the new HQ, executives will drive 50 miles south to Google airport?

 

[robertee]

So is this for a new HQ or just extra space needed in the city? If it's the new HQ, executives will drive 50 miles south to Google airport?

Extra space in SF, Google HQ isn't moving from MV. This is the original article containing the rumors: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2013-11-13&page=all

 

[Cal_Escapee]

So is this for a new HQ or just extra space needed in the city? If it's the new HQ, executives will drive 50 miles south to Google airport?

As indicated, extra space . . . sort of. Google hires a lot of young talent: code writers, engineers and such fresh from school. They want to live in the city. Google and several other Silicon Valley companies have, for years, run shuttle busses morning and evening hauling them from SF to the Valley and back. Some time ago they rented space in the (converted) Hill's Brothers Coffee Building on the Embarcadero as a satellite office. Apparently they've outgrown it and/or want to expand and realized hiring would be easier if they could offer people the option of working in the city (where they can walk to work or commute by bike rather than take an hour+ bus ride twice a day).

Incidentally, as the article says, this really isn't new for Google. For much the same reasons they've also acquired space in New York City as large as what they have in the Valley. The suburban lifestyle may be great for executives, but it's not so much what the young singles Google needs want.

 

[JoshuaSantos]

Google has something like 4 million SQFT in the South Bay with another million coming at some point in the future, I wouldn't expect their HQ to shift to SF and NY anytime soon. There are also plenty of young coders that live in the South Bay and work at the Googleplex, SF does not have an exclusive market for 20-something tech workers. There are a large group of techies that live in SF and are unwilling to commute South and vice versa, dual offices makes sense in the Bay Area for large companies until we get a decent unified and fast transit system.

 

[pesto]

I think the real driver here is not urban vs. suburban, but enclosure, which has been the tech paradigm since the late 1970's.

The campus concept involves making access easy for employees and difficult for everyone else; then providing an attractive environment that will keep people from wanting or needing to leave, but encourages them to meet with relevant members of the company. Mission Bay is good for this (as Candlestick Pt. will be after the stadium is demo'd) since it is essentially a suburban office park (controlled, secured, consistent rules and standards).

Google appears to be putting in very similar concepts not only in its existing campuses, but in Palo Alto (former Mayfair Mall), Mt. View (NASA) and, by rumor, the Brokaw and N. First megaplex (10 buildings). Some argue that this paradigm is fading as tech companies try to get into the heads of the "person on the street", but this remains to be seen. Certainly Apple, Samsung, and many others disagree at this point.

btw, the pictures would not be good for Google. They reflect the much more hierarchical structure of Salesforce, which is one of the few "suit and tie" tech companies left. Google seems to like consistent height, connecting bridges, common areas flowing into work areas, etc.

 

[Cal_Escapee]

the pictures would not be good for Google. They reflect the much more hierarchical structure of Salesforce, which is one of the few "suit and tie" tech companies left. Google seems to like consistent height, connecting bridges, common areas flowing into work areas, etc.

"The pictures" are Ricardo Legorreta's APPROVED design. If Google wants something different, they'd have to start the frequently years long approval process again. They can do that, of course. And something blander like the Silicon Valley designs might have an easier time of getting newly approved. But if they are in a hurry, they might want to use something they can start building right away (and, not insignificantly, something by a star architect that comes with the property).

Google has shown quite a lot of flexibility in their offices before. In New York, they've bought a pretty conventional high rise:

No sky bridges there.

And tellingly, it's in Chelsea: Like San Francisco, full of young (often gay) techies.

 

[pesto]

Google is big on their theory of operational efficiency and the secret and proprietary data that supports it. But it appears to mostly consist of regulating flows of people so that they meet the relevant other people so as to spark discussions and re-thinking of how things should be done (along with the obvious stuff, like keeping insiders in and outsiders out, recreational facilities, etc.).

Admittedly this is not as important in facilities away from the core development centers, since most people normally have assigned tasks they are executing.