Domains of choice

In the realm of the Internet, there's no shortage of acronyms for all the parts of a web address. Top-level domains like .com, .org and .edu are, logically enough, "TLDs." Then there are country codes like .es (Espana, or Spain) and .kr (Korea), which are referred to in some circles as ccTLDs. Though we try hard to avoid such puzzling shortcuts, we do add country and territory domains to our roster when we can. Now Indonesia, South Africa, Tonga, Bolivia, Krgyszstan, Jamaica, Belize, Seychelles, the Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands join more than 100 other countries and territories with a Google of their own, so people can restrict searches to their country or their language.

Sean Knapp
Software Engineer

Honey, we shrunk the Google

By and large, big companies have gotten the word: offering good search is good for business. Customers are happier (and more likely to buy something) when they can quickly find the right information on a website. Employees are more productive when they actually find what they need on their networks. They don't have to reinvent the wheel, bug the IT department (or their colleagues), or sift through directories and files.

Having good search used to be a bit out of reach for small and medium-sized businesses. So, we shrunk Google into a new blue box. Smaller than the original Google Search Appliance, the Google Mini looks like this...



And with a price of $4995, it's practically an impulse buy at the Google Store. Now small and medium-sized organizations with up to 50,000 online documents can get Google search for their own websites and intranets, like this productive-looking team from DeAnza College.



Rajen Sheth
Product Manager

Don't knock opportunity

A few years ago, despite being a big fan of Google, I turned down a job offer here, mainly because I thought it was too late to make an impact. After all, the company had 200+ people and a very established and successful product. But last year, I did join Google, and since then I've heard the same argument from a few friends whom I have tried to recruit.

Because Google's ongoing commitment is building technologies and products that organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible, we've come up with products like Gmail, Google Desktop, and Google Print. And we're currently working on more products, and improving existing ones, to further deliver on this mission. We're very far from being done: there are a lot of exciting problems left.

Aside from working with smart people on solutions that can make an impact on the world, I've learned that Google has a few other attributes that make it unique. Through our research, we're able to develop systems here such as MapReduce or GFS that make it easier to build scalable distributed systems (and for that matter, build products faster than most startups can). What's more, Google has an amazingly cool and passionate work environment - and a strong commitment to technical excellence so that we can build the best products to help people all around the globe.

So if you're thinking that it's too late to make an impact at Google, I challenge you to think again. It turns out that today there are more chances to make your mark than ever before.

Reza Behforooz
Software Engineer

(Updated with correct year, typo fix)