Justin Uberti, Google’s tech lead who I believe leads the Google Talk team, posted on his blog that Hulk Hogan visited Google’s Kirkland office. Hogan made his visit on Tuesday, November 3rd, as a signing event for his new book, My Life Outside the Ring.

Here is a picture from Justin:

I too grew up during the “Hulk-O-Mania” period, so it is cool to see him at Google. Also, big happy 35th birthday Justin!

The Charlotte Observer reports the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law appealed the decision to not allow them to sue over Google receiving tax breaks for picking North Carolina for a server farm.

The advocacy group argues that the tax benefits given to Google will ultimately cost North Carolina’s tax payers more, to make up for those benefits given to Google. North Carolina feels the jobs created, 210 of them, will lead to more income for the state and benefit the state over all. Bob Orr, the institute’s executive director said, “How are people going to challenge the acts of government that they feel are unconstitutional if, as taxpayers, the courthouse door is shut?”

The court heard the lawyers arguments on both sides and may take up to a few months to make a decision.

A fire has broken out at Google’s UK headquarters in Victoria, south west London. The fire appears to have been started on the rooftop, possibly due to the barbecue that is used there.

Right now, it appears the fire is under control and that no one was hurt. The 6 floor building has been evacuated after six fire engines and 25 firefighters were called to the see just before 2pm local time. A Google spokesperson told the Telegraph:

All I know is that there was a barbecue on a roof terrace above one of the Google floors. We have all been moved away from the building and we are waiting for the fire brigade to tell us when we can go back in.

The image comes from Breaking News.

For all the uber-geeks and electrical engineers, CNET offers an interesting story about Google’s approach to servers. From the very early days Google was thinking carefully about scale, efficiency but perhaps mostabout cost savings. Rather than buy servers, Google has built them from the beginning. Google finally revealed one of its home-made servers before an audience on Wednesday. According to the article:

Google’s big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there’s a problem with the main source of electricity. The company also revealed for the first time that since 2005, its data centers have been composed of standard shipping containers–each with 1,160 servers and a power consumption that can reach 250 kilowatts . . .

Overall, Google’s choices have been driven by a broad analysis on cost that encompasses software, hardware, and facilities.

“Early on, there was an emphasis on the dollar per (search) query,” [Google's vice president of operations, Urs] Hoelzle said. “We were forced to focus. Revenue per query is very low.”

Mainstream servers with x86 processors were the only option, he added. “Ten years ago…it was clear the only way to make (search) work as free product was to run on relatively cheap hardware. You can’t run it on a mainframe. The margins just don’t work out,” he said.

The article goes into more details of the history and strategy behind Google’s infrastructure as well as additional technical information. Google’s hardware infrastructure has long been considered one of its competitive advantages. The extent to which this novel approach to server development and deployment was created by the pressure of little or no revenue shows how innovation often emerges from circumstances of limited resources.

I had the privilege of meeting with the Google Israel team in their Tel Aviv office.  Eyal Miller, the manager of the technology sector of Google Israel was kind enough to give me the office tour and introduce me to the people.

As some of you know, Google has two offices in Israel.  One in up north in Haifa and the other in Tel Aviv.  I only visited the Tel Aviv office, which has a floor devoted to engineers and another floor of sales and marketing staff.  The Haifa office, I am told, is devoted to engineers.  In total, there are about 80 Google engineers based in Israel, they work on a multitude of projects, including the very popular Google Insights for Search.

I have been to a few Google offices, including the Mountain View campus and the New York office. I was pleasantly surprised to see how ‘Google-like’ the Tel Aviv office was.  Even before we stepped foot into the lobby,  we took notice of the Google colored Mezuzah (a Jewish symbol for the doorpost).

Before entering the office, I decided to use the bathroom, to find code examples posted above the urinal – not uncommon in other Google bathrooms.  We then entered the Google office and signed in via a computer kiosk, as you would in any Google office.  We got our name badges and sat in the lobby, which had the classic Google Map that showed where in the world searches are taking place, plus a screen that showed various (I believe, live) searches from across the globe.  Of course, the lobby area was decked out in fun looking sofas, a Google Fridge (220 volt), lava lamps and so on.  Like I said, the Google Tel Aviv office, is extremely ‘Google-like.’

Eyal Miller came in and introduced himself to my wife and I.  Yes, I took my wife with me on this trip.  He first explained that I cannot take any pictures of the engineers floor.  Google is known for keeping the engineers and what they are working on, very secretive – it makes for the culture of Google.  So he showed us around the engineers floor and quickly took us to the sales floor, where we were able to take more pictures of the cute colorful beanbags, massage tables, more lava lamps, free food, and so on.

Miller began to introduce me to the various Googlers in that office.  We met Rachel who is the personal assistant for Meir Brand, Google Israel’s Director.  I also met Meir Brand himself later on.  I met Riki Drori, the marketing manager, and then several members of Miller’s team including Koby, Anat and Michal.  Miller took us into his office, where his team was hard at work – and the view was unbelievable.  The Google Tel Aviv office is in the Levingston building – I am told it is a popular office building in Tel Aviv, and I can see why.  From the window, you can see the beautiful beach line and picturesque blue sky.  I took quick notice that each member of Miller’s team had goals listed on the whiteboard.  Miller’s goal was to drink two bottles of water per day.  Miller explained later that his team is very health conscious and they put him on a very strict health diet.  This is often something you would see in Google offices, i.e. Googlers treating other Googlers as family.

We then went into a corner conference room, which had an even nicer view – which I thought was impossible.  I then had time to ask Miller a bunch of questions about what the Google sales and marketing team does in that office.  Miller explained that it was his job to work closely with the leading Israeli technology companies and try to help them use Google’s solutions to improve their businesses.  His goal was to get more of these companies more involved in the web and making more sales at a higher ROI (return on investment).  He works with startups, such as companies like Incredimail – an email marketing company that is popular in the US but is based in Israel.  His team will manage the campaigns directly for these companies, plus they also support agencies, such as companies like Compucall, Podium Israeli SEM firms.

I asked Miller how the economy was impacting Google’s business in Israel. He started off by saying that Israel just saw a huge spike in layoffs, just like America.  I believe that day, the Israeli economic reports showed a loss of 17,500 jobs in December, which is huge for Israel.  But Miller explained that the Israeli banks are strong and they did not start feeling a slow down until much after America’s recession began.  He said business is still very good but he would not be surprised to see things slow in the short term.

Historically, Google has been known to take some heat from the SEM industry for “poaching” PPC clients from local agencies.  I have personally written about such activities and rumors in both the US market and European market.  I first asked Miller if Google charges a management fee for managing PPC campaigns.  The answer was no, Google does not charge a management fee.  Why does that matter?  Most, if not all, PPC management companies charge a monthly management fee.  So to run a PPC campaign directly with Google, you will save on the management fee and thus have more ad budget to spend directly on the clicks, as opposed to spending it on management.  This is why some PPC agencies are upset that Google will manage campaigns directly for businesses.  It basically cuts out the agencies that bring business to Google.  I asked Miller, if he was aware of the history of some PPC agencies in the US being upset with Google ‘going direct’ to the consumer.  He said he was not aware of the situation in the US.  He added that in Israel, the agencies  and Google get along very well.  He said, they often stop by, use Google’s offices for client meetings, they learn about new features and are educated by Google on some PPC strategies.

I didn’t want to take Google’s word for the Google/agency relationship.  So I asked some local PPC companies what they felt.  Ophir Cohen, the CEO of Compucall, a web marketing company based in Israel, told me “Google Israel to be a wonderful partner for my business.” I received similar statements from other local Israeli SEM companies. To be honest, none answered my direct question on the poaching and if it is an issue. Possibly the most interesting comments cam from Gilad Sasson of Nekuda.co.il (also known from Algoholic). Gilad told me that he became an AdWords certified profession back in 2004 and everything was great back then. But in 2006, he said Google Israel’s sale team came in and began to initially offer help to the agencies. Soon later, some clients found their way over to working with Google directly, “cutting the agency fee” and possibly “convincing clients they’ll do better” directly with Google then the agency, Gilad told me. Possibly those companies felt it was more enticing to work directly with Google, who knows. But Gilad expressed he was not angry with Google, it just made agencies like his, work harder to show the clients their value add. Gilad did say, he was “very disappointed” to see “any vendor offering long term mutual partnership for lead generation / customers nurturing and then approaching directly to the client, ignoring the agency.” It is important to note that Gilad no longer works for that agency and does little PPC work these days.

These days, I don’t hear much about agencies being upset with Google over the poaching issue. So I assume much of it has died down or agencies have learned how to compete.

That was the bulk of our conversation.  I would like to thank the Google Tel Aviv office for their warm and gracious hospitality why I was visiting them.  I would also like to thank Eyal Miller for showing us what a Crembo was and how to enjoy the rich flavors of the special ice cream wafer.

Google plans data centre at old Finnish paper mill from Reuters reports Google purchased a Finnish paper mill from Stora Enso for $51.7 million dollars as a possible place to put a new data center. Google told Reuters, “We are currently considering to build a data centre at this site.”

The location is in southeastern Finland, where part of the land will be transferred to the city of Hamina for other purposes. Stora Enso closed down the mill in early 2008, which has been in operation for 53 years. The deal is suppose to close by the end of first quarter 2009.

Further discussion on this topic can be found at Techmeme.

Harper’s Magazine has a spread showcasing a blueprint of Google’s Oregon data center in The Dalles. The article documents the data center at 68,680 square feet with three buildings, two that are currently completed. The data center would require enough power to light up about 82,000 homes, equivalent to 103-megawatts of electricity.

Check out the full blueprints over here, and take note of the dormitory building and various landscape.

More coverage on this story at Techmeme.

Postscript: Also, the New York Times has a piece on this.

Denver area residents were treated to some fun over the weekend with reports of the purchase of a 432-acre former campus of Storage Technology by a “mystery buyer,” for as much as $60 million. The buyer insisted on absolute secrecy from everyone involved in the deal, including Sun Microsystems, which owned the campus. “It’s like dealing with the CIA,” said one broker associated with the transaction.

The negotiations were so secretive that the Associated Press reported Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., as saying, “We don’t even know it is a tech company. It could be a tech company, but it could also be a financial services company or an energy company. Who knows?”

I’d give very good odds that it’s Google, for a number of reasons:

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The campus would be ideal for a hybrid data center and workspace for engineers and salespeople. The campus is just four miles from Level 3 Communications, which operates one of the largest communications and internet backbones in the world. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was the CTO of Sun for years. There’s a major regional airport just three miles down the road. The area has a wealth of telecommunications and computer engineering talent (IBM is Boulder county’s largest employer and Qualcomm has an office here). The campus is even located on streets with geeky names (Tape Drive and Disc Drive). I could go on, but all of the puzzle pieces seem to fit.

I asked Google for a comment but haven’t yet heard back from them—stay tuned!

Update: I received this comment from Google spokesperson Katie Watson: “While I cannot comment on a specific property, the Colorado area is significant to Google as we have many users, employees, advertisers and publishers there, and it is a base for recruiting. We will always seek to acquire space as necessary to meet our needs.”

Garett Rogers reminded me of Google’s Solar Panel Project, where Google installed about 9,000 solar panels at their headquarters to help power the offices.

Google offers a status report of how much energy was generated from those panels. The latest reading says, “In the last 24 hours, Google produced 644 kilowatt-hours of electricity from the sun.” In other words, the solar panels generated enough power to complete 402 dishwasher cycles for that day.

Steve Yegge, an engineer at the Google Kirkland office, recently posted to the Google blog about the Kirkland office’s third birthday. He also announced the opening of an engineering office in Fremont.

Both locations are in the Seattle area — Fremont is just north of downtown and Kirkland is across the floating bridge on the east side (near another company you may have heard of called Microsoft). Yahoo also recently announced the opening of a new engineering office in the Seattle area. Theirs will be in Bellevue, which is also on the east side, near that little-known Redmond company. Both Yahoo and Google have downplayed Microsoft’s potentially recruiting potential (and Yahoo, being the third one in, is downplaying the possibility of recruiting from Google).

Yahoo Senior VP David Sobeski (previously at Microsoft) said to the Seattle PI, “We’re here to build a good presence of engineers. You know what, if Microsoft guys want to come and ask us questions, great. Google guys? Great. We’ll talk to everybody.” Earlier, Alan Eustace, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, told the PI that Google didn’t set up an office there in order to attract employees from Microsoft. (Although that office certainly has its share of ex-Microsofties.)

Fun fact: the picture in that PI article of the Google office includes me in the corner “brainstorming.” Sadly, the Buffy action figures on my old desk aren’t visible.

Steve’s blog post points out the many Google products to come out of the Kirkland office, and I can’t help but add that Sitemaps grew well beyond its roots into Webmaster Central thanks to the efforts of the Kirkland-based team.

Vanessa Fox ate lots of yummy cake as a Googler during the first and second birthdays of the Kirkland office and wishes them a very happy third.