Reading (U6/ Pre-Int)

The company ‘Google’ was started in 1998 by two Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It offers free software that helps people find information on the internet. They started the business in a friend’s garage, but the company quickly grew, and has now become very successful. Today Google has 10,000 employees worldwide, and ‘Fortune’ magazine has recently voted Google the number one company to work for in the USA. We visited the new Google building in California, called ‘Mountain View’, to find out why.

At Mountain View, employees can wear T-shirts to work. There is a free gym and swimming pool, and a company bus goes from the office to San Francisco so that employees don’t have to drive to work. ‘Googlers’ – the name employees call themselves – can have a massage, visit the hairdresser, doctor and dentist – all for free! Googlers don’t have to work at a desk; they can work outside, or sit on one of the many sofas in the building. There is a free restaurant, with fantastic food, and free snacks all day. You can have a beer on Friday afternoon with your workmates. You can even take your dog to work!