Touring Google with Avinash Kaushik

While I was at SES last week in San Jose,I along with Bill Slawski and Kim Krause Berg had a very unique opportunity to get a tour of Google.  Our wonderful and gracious tour guide was none other than Avinash Kaushick, who's famous for his great analytics blog Occam's Razor and he new book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.

Kim did a great write up of our time there called: Another Side of Google, but I wanted to add a bit of my view of the tour.

First we got a ride up to Google from Keri Morgret from Morgret Designs, and she played tour guide on our way there.  Pointing out Yahoo's buildings, Microsoft's, and all the other landmarks and important players in the industry.  For those of you who don't know, Keri's the person that won the Bruce Clay contest that invited people to enter by helping a non-profit agency with their Search Optimization.

After Keri dropped Kim, Bill and I off, it was on to building 41 to meet with Avinash.  We were greeted by probably the most friendly security guards I've ever encountered, who graciously pointed us confused visitors in the right direction.  The Google campus, during the day, looks a lot different than it does at the dance!

Amazingly it was hard to even tell that Google Dance 2007 was even held there the night before, very little signs of the festivities remained.  All of the regular Google lunch tables with umbrellas were back in their normal locations, gone were the dunk tanks, milk shake stands, food tents and pool tables (and thankfully karaoke stations).  I think Google must have employed hundreds of people to manage the transformation.

We finally made our way to the guest area, signed in and waited for Avinash to arrive.  While we waited, we got to see those infamous screens that show the searches happening real time on the screen flying by.  There were hundreds that must have flew by in the mere 5 minutes we waited for our host, and the searches just weren't in English. Arabic, Korena, Japanese, Russian and other languages all flew up the screen as a new search was typed in.

Once Avinash arrived, he greeted us with a Google bag, chalk full of Google Analytics T-Shirts.  Enough for us three and a few to hand out to those who'd eventually beg plead borrow and beg some more (*ehh hmmmTamarhmmm* hehe).  Apparently this is some serious schwag, as we later found out. 

Avinash began our tour showing us one of those famous "food stations".  These weren't the cafes or cafeterias, just stations with munchies (the good for you kind) and drinks (including Smart Water - yes we did drink some!).  From there Avinash took us all around, we got to see the replica of the XPrize winner, SpaceShipOne, hanging from the rafters complete with a "do not launch" sign attached to it.  We learned the T-Rex has a name, Stan, and even has a Google ID Badge.  Apparently Stan also gets into the holiday spirit and dawns a cape for Cinco De Mayo.  It made me wonder if he'll wear a Halloween mask on October 31st and have a trick or treat bag?

We made our way through a few of the cafeterias, and as Kim pointed out in her blog post, I noticed the ice cream sandwiches that had a Google logo on it.  Well it turns out, this is how the company from San Francisco who makes the ice cream treats delineates that it's Google's ice cream sandwiches and not the stuff that's sold in the stores.  So why is this important?

Believe it or not Google tests all their food, to ensure that it's healthy for its employees.  The original version of the ice cream treats didn't pass the muster because of all the trans fats.  This apparently didn't deter Larry or Sergei, who loved the product, since they went back to the company and asked them to make a version that was minus the trans fats.  And thus, Google Ice Cream does exist, unlike Google Gulp.

We had a wonderful lunch, the salad I had was heavenly with this cucumber yogurt dressing and I added some chicken into it.  There was this vanilla cream soda that was to die for (I snagged on for our ride back later too!) and deserts that were so scrumptious.  I can see why Google has low turn over, based on food alone.

But I noticed something about the "air" at Google.  Something way different than any other place I've toured or even have worked at.  The people there were smiling, they were courteous, even more than tolerant of the children in the cafeterias.  The feeling in the air, was just "vibrant", that's about how I can describe it.   The people who work for Google seem to truly enjoy what they do and where they are.  As someone who was searching for just that - it was a wonder to walk around a building so full of that feeling.

After lunch we stopped off at a few more places, Avinash even treated Kim to a sneak peak at where the usability team sits.  I think Bill and I were afraid we wouldn't be able to pull her back out. :)

Upon Keri's advice, we asked about the rest rooms at Google, Avinash laughed.  Apparently there are a lot of requests by visitors to utilize Google's restrooms.  Avinash dropped us off at one while he ran back to get a few more shirts for us (thankfully he did, since *hmmmTamarhmmm* liked them so much). I go into a stall and I kid you not - the seats were heated and there was a panel in it, similar to the picture here.   The panel I saw had another pink and another blue button.

So after Kim and I both had a good laugh about the bathroom, we met back up with Avinash, who took us back to the reception area to wait for him to take us back to the conference center.  During this time we took full advantage of utilizing the free internet connection and I posted about Cre8asite's 5th birthday.  Once my laptop battery drained down, I decided to park myself in the massage chair that was calling my name.  Wow - I'm surprised Bill and Kim didn't have to wake me up, those chairs are better than a masseuse!

Finally though, the free massage had to end, as Avinash collected his three gawking tourists and to lead us back to downtown San Jose.

For a gal who oogled at the Googleplex from the first pictures she saw, this tour is something I won't forget.  Thank you Avinash for you hospitality and kindness!