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As numbers go, 36 isn't a stunning one; some companies have locations numbering in the hundreds or thousands.  Still, Pingdom has tracked down three dozen of Google's data centers and plotted them on a map worth seeing.

 Pingdom's Map Of Data Centers

There may be more centers out there - a Pingdom blog post pointed out by Om Malik admits, "Since Google tends to be quite secretive about their data centers in general, the information we have presented here most likely isn't 100% complete."  Also, depending on how you want to count the things, there may even be fewer - some of the 36 are under construction.

We'll get on with the 36, though.  They're mostly clustered in the continental U.S. and the central and northern parts of Europe.  Three are in Asia, and one stands by itself in South America.  Oddly, even though Google Australia is quite active, there are none on that continent, and there are absolutely zero in Africa, as well.

Pingdom notes, "According to Google's earnings reports, they spent $1.9 billion on data centers in 2006, and $2.4 billion in 2007.  Google unveiled four new data center projects in 2007.  Each has a cost estimate of $600 million, which will include everything from construction to equipment and computers."

Some government officials have been known to virtually bend over backwards in order to attract and accommodate Google's data centers.  Since 36 really doesn't seem like a significant number, it's likely that even more of them should be limbering up.