To sum up: my Google Tech Talk went extremely went. The talk was part of the User Experience Brownbag series, so my audience of at least fifty people (pretty much a full room complete with four sites that teleconferenced in) was at least familiar with the topic area I spoke on.

The talk itself went wonderfully. I felt like I got into “the zone” of presenting that enabled me to speak smoothly, make eye contact, and be funny, informative, and interesting all at the same time. Both Ricardo, my host at Google, and Alden, the colleague I am on traveling on business with, also said the talk went well. I had a few people ask questions, and I thought they were intelligent.

As a company to work for, Google has rocketed to the top of my list. The exciting atmosphere, beautiful campus, ample resources, free food and drink, and all the perks are absolutely incredible. It is not a matter of whether I want a job at Google, but it’s a matter of whether I can get a job at Google. It’s all of the dot-com excesses that Silicon Valley is famous for, but well-managed and unlikely to implode anytime soon.

I hope to get a copy of the video soon (they have people whose job it is to do this kind of recording). However, the video needs to be processed, which may not happen until January because of the Christmas holiday and everyone taking vacation. As soon as it’s ready, though, I hope to help Google get it up on YouTube.

For now, many thanks to Ricardo for giving me this amazing opportunity to speak along with showing me around campus and talking about Google. Ricardo was the ultimate Google host!

Across the street shot of one of the main Google buildings.

A small part of the main Google campus, nicely landscaped. There is so much more than what this picture shows.

Another part of the Google campus, with the building primarily used for the Google Maps team.

Right outside of the Android development building – the Android logo with the three pastries the software releases have been named after – donut, cupcake, and eclair.

It was suggested that I stick my head through the donut hole for a picture. Yeah, that’s not ridiculous.

Inside the Android building, a big metal sculpture of the Predator from the movies. Next to me is Ricardo, my host at Google and good friend from George Mason University.

Firstly, my Google Tech Talk went really well. I will have more about that (including pictures) soon. In the meantime, here is a list of amazing things about Google that really make me want to work there.

NON-FOOD PERKS

• The solar panels charging the electric cars that any Google employee can borrow to run errands FOR FREE.
• The two fitness pools outside staffed by a full-time lifeguard (Mountain View law).
• The plentiful pool and foosball tables – I even spotted a few outside on a deck.
• The coupons employees get for free full-body massages. And the sporadic massage chairs that employees can use whenever for free.
• The dog-friendly campus, which means that anyone can bring their dogs to work.

FOOD

• The food every hundred feet that consists of at least drinks and snacks.
• The cafeterias are always open during the workday and are completely free.
• The main cafeteria that color-coded its food so that green is healthy, red is unhealthy, and they publish stats from the past month about how healthy the cafeteria has been.
• The all-vegetarian cafeteria and the burrito place that the Google founders had built and modeled after their favorite burrito restaurant.

CAMPUS

• The dinosaur skeleton right outside of the Googleplex (they actually call it that).
• The all-metal Predator sculpture that is in the Android developers building.
• The small garden on campus that is a pilot project with the University of California for urban gardening in third world countries.
• The memorabilia from Wargames that the director and producer brought when they came to speak about the movie’s 20th anniversary.
• The meeting spaces that appear out of nowhere but are freely available to use.
• The Android sculpture they have with their various software releases, all code-named after baked goods (cupcake, eclair, and donut).
• The projector in the lobby that projects recent Google searches once a second on the wall (there is a pretty good dirty words filter, though).