The company whose name is becoming part of our daily jargon is now setting up camp in Austin. Google Inc., which has been shopping for a location in Austin for months, has leased property on Sixth Street.
The company will occupy the second floor of the Scarborough Building on Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, said Bill Anderson, broker for Office Leasing Advisors Inc., which aided Google in locating the property. Anderson said he believes the company will move into the 25,000-square-foot space sometime this spring.
Austin attracted Google with its high quality of life, deep local talent pool and commitment to education at all levels, including the University of Texas, said Google spokeswoman Erin Gleason in an e-mail.
"Google is always searching for strong engineering talent, and we are looking to hire as many great engineers as we can find for the Austin office," Gleason said.
The company posted a job listing on its Web site for an engineering director who can manage 100 or more engineering employees.
Michael Powell, director of the Cockrell School of Engineering's Career Assistance Center, said he thinks Google will begin hiring engineers after the company chooses a director. He said employees will likely be required to have at least a few years of experience. Google has not contacted Powell about hiring UT students yet.
"Google has maintained a good relationship with the University, recruiting UT students over the years," Powell said.
Google has not contacted any of the researchers from the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus about hiring, either, said spokeswoman Faith Singer-Villalobos.
The UT libraries have been working with Google for more than a year, said Dennis Dillon, associate director of the University libraries.
Dillon said Google has spent the last year digitizing the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, which Dillon said is arguably the most comprehensive collection on Latin America in the world. The company will work to add the library to its online book collection.
The digitizing of the library has nothing to do with its move to Austin, he added.
"Google is such a big operation, their right hand doesn't know what their left hand is doing," Dillon said.
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