Inside Google Boston

Most Google locations focus on either engineering or sales. We focus on both. So what, you ask? Consider the following. One day at lunch, when some of our Googlers in sales described the lengthy sales proposal creation process, the engineers eating with them figured there had to be a better way. Within weeks, they’d built a tool automating the process, one that’s now used across our global sales organization.

That kind of innovation isn’t possible when sales and engineering work on different floors - or in completely separate buildings.

When we’re not organizing the world’s information and making it more useful and accessible, you can find us scrambling over the office climbing dome or playing board games (we have more per capita than any other Google location). Or perhaps we’re in the cafeteria, which features a wicked cool mural of famous Bostonians, from Ben Franklin to Leonard Nimoy, in the stands at Fenway Park. The second floor takes the fun to another level (pun intended) with lounge areas recreating Beacon Hill and Cape Cod.

We also like ping pong. A lot. For example, our site director claims he’ll give his job for a day to anyone who can beat him (to date, he’s undefeated, including his match-ups with Governor Deval Patrick and Salman Rushdie). To keep up with the action, our engineers built an automated system ranking the top 50 players in the office, and a live feed lets us watch matches wherever we happen to be.