Google Expands Global Presence

Tech City in London

I don’t know about you, but I find this report from Search Engine Watch to be exciting: Google Expands Global Presence in Asia, London and Dublin.  I love to see a company like Google, well known to be very smart and successful, do its strategy thing and ply its internet operations.

Here is what I’m thinking:

Google eats up a lot of energy to run its business(es). So it makes sense, in many different ways, that it seeks energy efficiency, because it’s critical to maintaining its strong economics. Buying up sources of power is something Google has cash for. Of course going green (i.e., environmentally conserving) is cool.

Expanding its operations overseas means more jobs. But how much will this actually help unemployment in the US?  They can send expats, but I wonder how many Americans are willing to live and work abroad.  There has to be a merging, too, in the workforce in these countries, that is, expats and locals. For someone who’s lived and worked in different countries, I know that this can be an awesome experience. Also that it can be a problem, at best, and maybe a failure, at worst, if the expats and their families aren’t prepared well and if that tenuous mix of nationalities ends up being bad soup.

Finally, the concept of a Tech City in the UK is fab. Google, like its fellow media and technology giants, need oodles and oodles of talent and these are in relatively short supply, given the competition for them. If they haven’t already, they need to promote and support a career in this broad, revolutionary field among young people.

Note: I wrote this article on October 3rd 2011 for an old Media & Tech blog.