Google Leases More Land In Kirkland

Have trouble translating that figure into “people space”?  I know I do.  Luckily, Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times is able to report, “the site has three buildings . . . and parking for 640 cars.”  Then, given that these are Googlers we’re discussing – some are likely to walk, bike, take the bus, or carpool – add another handful of people to your mental sum.

Exciting stuff, at least for folks living in the Kirkland area.  Dudley then adds, “But that’s not all. . . .  Yahoo! is looking to open a large office – around 120,000 square feet, the source said – giving the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company its first major presence in Seattle.”

For the record, Yahoo wouldn’t confirm this move.  And the Puget Sound Business Journal puts the size of Google’s new property at 195,000 square feet, not 180,000.  I’m inclined to believe Dudley, however.

Either way, Google just keeps getting bigger.  Don’t be surprised if its “campus” label falls by the wayside – at some point, we’ll be looking at Google “counties.”

Like Microsoft’s Redmond campus, Kirkland is in the Seattle area. Unlike Microsoft, Google doesn’t have thousands of people populating its offices in the suburbs there, but the company is trying to remedy that.

“The engineering development team in Kirkland mirrors Google’s other engineering offices,” Google says of Kirkland, “with the same scope of work, hiring standards and unique Google culture.”

They have a few dozen positions to fill, mostly in engineering and operations. Considering the sorry state of employment in much of the tech industry, it seems these plum roles should fill up fast.

Google is pushing for some love for its steadily growing operations in the state of Washington. Narayanan Shivakumar, Director, Seattle-Kirkland R&D Center, riffs on a classic Clash title with a post on the Google blog called ‘Kirkland calling’.

The Northwest Googlers have turned out contributions to products our readers will recognize: ad optimization, Sitemaps, and the always useful Webmaster Central. There’s definitely appreciation for this work in Google’s target audience.

One has to wonder if Kirkland’s relative lack of extracurricular things to do in comparison to the San Francisco area may influence potential Googlers to stay in Silicon Valley instead. The Seattle area’s legendary overcast skies, precipitation (with average snowfall of five inches in January), and geographical disconnect from the vibrant Valley could be factors.

Google has reportedly become a little less picky about who it hires these days. Instead of rigid education-based limitations like GPA, they want more well-rounded candidates.

That may be more of a reflection on the burgeoning startup culture, fueled by new companies cropping up constantly in Google’s Silicon Valley backyard. Why take a paycheck and less-lucrative stock options in a distant city with worse weather when a smart graduate can stay in Northern California and fantasize about YouTube-like fortunes instead?

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.