In 2003, Google opened its first office in Ireland, and following a rapid expansion, it doesn’t look like the company intends to reverse course anytime soon.  Google’s now purchased the tallest office building in Dublin for about $136 million.

The Montevetro Building, as it’s known, is 15 stories high and offers 210,000 square feet of office space.  It’s located in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock district, is currently unoccupied, and even has its own rail station to boot.

Any member of Facebook’s HR department who happens to be based in Ireland is going to have a busy year ahead of him (or her).  A new report’s indicated that Facebook intends to add 100 employees, thereby increasing the size of its Irish workforce by about 50 percent.

Sometime today, Street View fans should be able to take in sights on all seven continents for the first time ever.  Coverage of Brazil and Antarctica will make this possible, and images of Ireland are supposed to become available, to boot.

The number of people Google employs in Ireland should soon grow by 200.  Google’s announced that it intends to establish a new operations center in the country, and the company’s wasting no time in getting it up and running.

However facepalm-worthy Google’s accidental collection of sensitive data sent over WiFi networks may have been, the search giant is at least wasting no time in remedying the situation.  At the request of the Irish Data Protection Authority, Google has already deleted the data it accumulated in Ireland, and the company appears set to dispose of the data it collected in the UK, as well.

People who – deep breath – live in the UK or Ireland, don’t like to get lost, can tolerate beta software, and own a new-ish Android phone are in luck.  An unfinished version of Google Maps Navigation has been made available in the UK and Ireland for Android devices 1.6 and higher.

Tanáiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment, Mary Coughlan TD announced today that Facebook is making Dublin the location of its international headquarters.

From there, they will run all of their international operations and provide support to Facebook users in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

As soon as news reached that AOL released Video Ticker there also was an announcement that Google will be introducing AdSense Video Units to Canada, the UK & Ireland.

AOL’s VIDEO TICKER ADS: