Google confirms it will open operations center in Poland: Google plans to open an operations center in the Polish city of Wroclaw in 2007, creating 200 new jobs. The center's main task will be to support the advertising department. Google said in a statement it chose Wroclaw because of the “availability of highly qualified graduates, the country's economic stability and strong infrastructure.” Google also operates a research and development center in Krakow. Colm Long, a Google director, said, Google will begin hiring immediately. Said Long, “In the first phase, we plan to take on 50-100 people.”
Google expects to double its Brazilian team: CEO Eric Schmidt said Google expects to double the size of its Brazilian team to 200 employees in 2007. Google will focus its recruitment on Brazil's largest city, São Paulo.
Google opens Latin American headquarters in Argentina: Google opened an office in Buenos Aires which will be the headquarters of its Latin American operations. Gonzalo Alonso, Google's director general for Latin America's Spanish-speaking countries, said, “Argentina will be the third-largest headquarters for Google business development in the world, after those in California and Ireland.” The Buenos Aires office also will manage some clients of its operations in Spain. Alonso, who will head the Buenos Aires office, said Google chose Argentina as its regional headquarters for the Argentine people's entrepreneurial spirit, the high number of Internet users, and the good quality of Argentine software developers. He denied that the decision was based on Argentina's low costs resulting from the weak peso. CEO Eric Schmidt said the Argentine government has been “very supportive” of the company's entry in the country. Said Schmidt, “We are going to create many, many jobs.”
Google recruits at Wayne State University for Michigan offices: About 100 Wayne State University students and alumni attended a recent Google recruiting session on campus. Grady Burnett, head of Google's online sales operations in Ann Arbor, told applicants that Google wants an active role in Next Generation Mobile, the network for mobile electronic devices. Burnett said the new network will allow people to use their cell phones to do things like open garage doors, change the channels on televisions and more expansively browse the Internet. Burnett said he doesn't believe desktop and laptop computers will be pushed off the market by handheld devices, but said they could expand the electronics market even further. Google’s Ann Arbor headquarters caters mostly to customer service and AdWords. There also is a group of Google employees in Southfield who work with Michigan auto companies.
