Acquisition gives Google a welcome presence in L.A. area. (Media & Technology).Back in the salad days of the Internet boom, tech workers could choose from scores of prospective dot-com employers in L.A., or sign up with recruiters parachuting in from Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern . It hasn't been that way for some time, but news last week that Google Inc. -- one of the few remaining Internet wonders -- had purchased a local company and planned to step up hiring in the area was greeted favorably at several of the area's top engineering campuses. "Google used to recruit here several years ago before the tech bust. We haven't seen them here since," said Bob Calverly, a spokesman for the USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. School of Engineering. "We are certainly interested in having them recruit here again." When Yahoo Inc. bought Santa Monica-based Geocities in 1999, other companies snapped up laid-off employees. But employment among L.A.'s Internet service provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. and Web search industries has fallen sharply, to 11,600 in March, compared with 18,900 in January 2001, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the L.A. Economic Development Corp. Google's April 23 acquisition of Applied Semantics Inc., a software developer based in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. , gives the Mountain View-based company its first physical presence in L.A. "The acquisition enables Google to grow its engineering team and recruiting efforts in the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, region," said Susan Wojcicki, Google's product management director. Google's Pasadena-based competitor, Overture Services Inc., is known for grabbing local talent at Cal Tech. The company currently has 40 employees from the school, located just a few miles from its offices. Now Google is likely to give Overture some competition on the hiring front as well -- and the lure of Google's name is certain to appeal to job seekers. "Even top level graduates are dying for jobs. Google is an exciting company to work for," said Eric DeDominic, president of CT Personnel Services, a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. recruiter specializing in engineering positions. Applied Semantics, which has grown to 40 employees since it was founded in 1998, makes technology used for advanced information retrieval information retrieval Recovery of information, especially in a database stored in a computer. Two main approaches are matching words in the query against the database index (keyword searching) and traversing the database using hypertext or hypermedia links. on the Web, a key component to search engines. The company changed its name from Oingo in 2001 after it decided to focus on selling its technology to search engines. Previously, the company had operated its own search engine destination site. Both Google and Overture have been buying up companies to bolster their technology. Earlier this year, Overture acquired two search engines, Palo Alto-based Altavista Co. and Fast Search & Transfer of Norway. Overture has stepped up its Cal Tech recruiting in recent weeks, conducting on-campus interviews for the first time last month. "We didn't have to recruit on campus at Cal Tech before because it was all word of mouth. Now, our requirements have grown so we re being more aggressive," said Paul Ryan Paul Ryan may refer to:
Google declined to comment on specific hiring plans. A few other Silicon Valley companies have built large software teams in L.A., including Yahoo. Electronic Arts Inc., a video game developer based in Redwood Shores, established an L.A. studio three years ago and since then has more than doubled its head count by hiring software developers from a variety of places, including local universities and the defense and entertainment industries. "We seek talent from areas (one) might not normally think of," said Carol Brickner, director of human resources at Electronics Arts Los Angeles. Google may adopt a similar strategy. Adding different perspectives to the mix addresses a long-term challenge for search engines -- mimicking human thought. The complexity of this will require technology from a variety of fields. "The problem is the human brain, and the people who can solve it do not grow on trees. L.A. has talent in both the technology and cognitive sciences cognitive sciences The areas of medicine that study the nature and processes of mental activity–eg, neurology, psychiatry, psychology ," said Richard Koffler, executive director of the Software Council of Southern California. RELATED ARTICLE: Google Inc. Search engine hiring in L.A. Year Founded: 1998 Care Business: Internet search engine Headquarters: Mountain View CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. : Eric E. Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt, Ph.D (b. 1955 in Washington, D.C.) is Chairman and CEO of Google Inc and a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc.[1] He also sits on the Princeton University Board of Trustees. Employees in 2002: 800 Revenues: Not disclosed Web Pages Searched: More than 36 billion Worldwide Users: 73.5 million per month |
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