Photos: Inside Google's UK offices

By Andrew Lim on 09 May 2007, 3:55pm

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Today Crave went along to Google's UK offices in London to have a look at the Google Map application for mobile phones. While we think the application is cool enough, we couldn't help being distracted by Google's digs.

Security at the search engine's lair, near Victoria station, is very tight -- our photo was taken and printed on a badge and we were made to sign a form before we were allowed to do anything else.

Practically every door in the rather spacious offices -- which span, from what we could see, three floors -- is sealed by an electronic tag system. According to other journalists who had visited before, not everyone working at the office can access every door.

The reception is, as expected, a shrine to Google's achievements and its logo. The Google logo is absolutely everywhere and so are the colours that make up the logo. There are blue, green, red and yellow objects dotted everywhere you look.

There's also a projector in the reception area that beams Google Maps on to a blank wall and zooms in on all the capital cities across the world. It's really quite impressive, but it did leave us pondering whether or not Google was plotting world domination.

Other noteworthy features of the reception were the Google-branded bikes, which you can apparently buy, and a case that housed all of Google UK's prizes. As you can imagine, there were many trophies -- and why not, it is after all the largest search engine in the world.

What's interesting, however, about this larger than life company that preaches the organisation of data on the Internet, is that while we walked around its offices, there was a sense that Google does actually care about people.

There were signs up asking employees to ride to work because it's more environmentally friendly, Google-themed recycling bins dotted around the place and breakout areas where employees sat and chatted in a very relaxed manner.

Whether or not this is representative of the global company, it is good to see that Google UK isn't a purely commercial machine. Indeed, the presentation about Google UK's mobile map application was very convincing and rather humble, considering what a feat it is.

So having survived a visit to its abode, do we have any insight into whether Google is evil? Well, it's probably not evil, per se -- but it definitely has an unhealthy obsession with blue, green, red and yellow stuff. -Andrew Lim