Googleplex

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This article is about a company building. For the number, see Googolplex.

The Googleplex is the Google company headquarters, located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, near San Jose.

Googleplex is a play on words, googolplex being the name given to the large number . It is also a portmanteau of Google and complex — in the architectural sense.

The interior of the headquarters is furnished with items like shade lamps and giant rubber balls. The lobby contains a piano and a projection of current live Google search queries. It is the former home of computer company Silicon Graphics (SGI). Although relatively short in height, the complex covers an extremely large area.

The Googleplex is located between Charleston Road, Amphitheatre Parkway, and Shoreline Boulevard in north Mountain View close to the Shoreline Park wetlands. Google outgrew the original Googleplex early on and has leased a large number of older buildings adjacent to it.

The Googleplex has several important neighbors. Just west of the Googleplex are ALZA Plaza and the Mozilla Foundation; to the north is Shoreline Amphitheatre; and to the northwest is the headquarters of Intuit. To the south, other neighbours (not adjacent but very close) include a Century Theatres movie theater, Microsoft Corporation's Silicon Valley research complex, and the Computer History Museum.

In addition to the Googleplex, Google also has an EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Ireland which employs over 750 people, and approximately 25 data centers all over the world.

Employees can take a Google shuttle to work, usually carrying 155 people from San Francisco every day. It is powered by domestically grown and processed biodiesel.^[1]

Welcome to the Googleplex	The north side of the Googleplex	The south side of the Googleplex	Another view of the south side
The Googleplex entrance lobby	Visitors are required to make and wear a name badge	Google has outgrown the Googleplex and leased many nearby buildings like this one

Other uses

Googleplex is also the abbreviated name of a very powerful computer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a novel by Douglas Adams. Adams mentions it in chapter 25:

“‘...And are you not,’ said Fook leaning anxiously forward, ‘a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?...’”

References

1. ^ Google Blog: Worth the drive, 9/13/2004 01:34:00 PM

External links

• Life in the Googleplex Photo Essay
• The Google Culture
• A Glimpse Inside Google - Googlers at work & play
• Google Quick Information

Coordinates: 37.421844° N 122.084026° W