Google Intern Open House

So I was totally invited to the Google Intern Open House earlier today and it was sooooooo cool! The tour beforehand was sooooo awesome!

I took half a day off from work to drive 90 minutes to Mountain View, headquarters of Google. I got there about an hour early and wanted to walk around but Google Security immediately flagged me for not having a badge and said I could walk around anyways since I had a contact person at the building we were supposed to meet at. I ended up leaving a bit to meet up with my friend at Intuit and we all left in one big group. When we got there, we just walked by the security guards and went to the meeting place. We toured the Google campus for 30 minutes and then had a Q&A with the interns and recruiters. The tour was fantastic. There were “community bikes” everywhere which anybody can take a bike and ride it anywhere they can and even buckets of “community umbrellas”. They also had scooters and used to have Segways but those kept getting stolen. Food, snacks, and drinks (Naked juice, Smart Water, and more) were freely available everywhere! Tons of places to eat and get something to drink and the toilet seats were heated, electronically controlled, and had bidet capability. FOUR Infinity pools were on site with jets to make it like you’re swimming in a current and a bunch of other crazy stuff like free dry cleaning, clothes mending, shoe repair, haircuts, car washes, and the library bookmobile once in a while. There were a couple of displays of Google searches happening and the awesome spinning globe showing Google searches in a variety of languages around the world in real time as featured on 60 Minutes, pool tables, the gym, the volleyball court. I even saw a few dogs roaming around with their owners.

After that, registration was open for the Open House event. We got in line pretty quick because in the end, it was pretty long. Glad we got in quickly because the food was great and there was free blinking Google buttons and notebooks. We then watched some presentations about Developer Products, Google Desktop, and the new Google Street View. The Street View presentation was so in-depth and everybody learned a bunch about how it worked and some easter eggs. Everything that was talked about is freely available on the net so you can Google it. Anyways, I could tell you more, but I don’t need to get sued.

Next week, Sun Microsystems!