News - Google Office in Madison - Additional Details
Follow-up Details on the Google Office in Madison
I am posting a follow-up article on the Google Office in Madison because I have received a lot of questions from people asking about the specifics of that article.
Let me say first, that at the moment the details are very limited. There have been a number of live journal users who have confirmed the information I originally posted. There are several parties involved in the project so far so some people may have additional details that I don’t know. If you do have additional information, please feel free to post it to my comments so we can gather all the specifics and get a thread going with the details.
The questions I have been asked from people are as follows:
How did you find out about this?
As I mentioned in my original post “Google to Open Midwest Office in Madison, Wisconsin” I received this information from a friend who told me this in passing. They were not trying to pump up a story or get me excited. It was more along the lines of “this is what happened at work today”.
There had been a few brief mentions of this prior to this conversation because of paperwork that was currently in the works. This also involved a meeting with representatives from Google to hammer out details regarding the office space.
How do you know that it’s confirmed?
I also stated in my article about “Blog Mission Statement and News Accuracy” that I would only present information on my blog when it has been almost 100% confirmed. The confirmation that I decided to go by when posting this article was signed contracts regarding the office space Google will be using for their Madison location.
How do you know the location?
This is one spot I should have been clearer on when I posted the article. I mentioned in my original post that it would be in the Willy Street “Area”. This means the office may be “on” Willy Street or might be off a side street near Willy. Either way you should be able to see the building from WIlly Street. I do not know the confirmed address of the building. From what I have heard the office will most likely be very close to were John Nolan Drive and Williamson Street intersect, or within 2 blocks of this location.
Why would Google move to Willy Street?
The area that the office will most likely be in is actually closer to the Capital Square than what people would usually envision when they hear the name “Willy Street”. Do not expect to see a Google office mixed in between hippy clothing stores, world food markets and Mother Fools coffee house. Although based on Google’s company mantras I can see why they might like this area of Madison.
The secondary reason being, that Google apparently found a building in this area with a visual esthetic that matched their tastes. If you have seen the Google offices in California (inside and out) you can get an idea for what I am talking about.
What will this offices role be in Madison, Wisconsin?
The short answer is… no idea.
Sorry, I know you probably don’t want to hear that but it’s true. No one I have talked to that has information on this knows what the office will be used for.
There was a suggestion from Lacherig in a live journal comment that said “Aren’t they currently working on scanning all of the books in the UW’s libraries?” This could be the purpose of the office. In my original article I could only offer speculation as to what the new office might mean for Madison.
The only thing I find strange about the office is that the visual esthetic was an important factor about the building for one reason or another. If I was opening a business that would mainly be used for achieving data I wouldn’t spend the extra time or money on a building that looked “neat”.
This may just be they way Google does things with their company or it might mean that the office may have multiple purposes.
As far as how permanent the office will be, that is also up for speculation. I know that they are going to be renting the office space and they have not purchased any commercial property in Madison at the moment. If they had, I would give the confirmation details right from the AccessDane website regarding the purchase.
Because of this it is impossible to really guess what future plans Google may have for this office.
I personally feel that they should look into making Madison a second home because of how technology oriented the city already is. This could turn out to be something really cool, or it may just be that they are here to catalog books. Either way, it is Google, and that in itself is really cool.
Madison has the potential to be a great location for many successful computer related business. With companies like Raven Software and Human Head Studios that have been operating here for years, it would only be a bonus to have other technology related companies like Google move in next door.
I hope this answers some of the questions that have been floating around since my first post. As I said before I will post more details as they become available to me. This article lays out everything I have heard, so now you know as much as I do about it. (Ok maybe a few choice details were left out at the request of my friend)
I guess that might add a little incentive to check back on Pseudorant to see when those details come to light. Until then thanks for stopping by my blog, and please feel free to post any comments or questions in follow-up to this article.
The first person to post a comment will win a spot right below this article to type stuff! 
(and so on, so forth, I’m sure you see where I’m going with this.)
Thanks for checking out Pseudorant!!!
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2 Responses to “News - Google Office in Madison - Additional Details”
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Regarding the visual aesthetic…West Coasties place value on aesthetics because it contributes to the overall quality of life and experience, which isn’t too hard to figure out. This is an important value not to be overlooked and is sometimes as important as the goal/business operations itself. Aren’t regional differences fascinating? Hooray for Madison. I hope it works out.
It’s funny because I had never understood the concept of “quality of life” or its importance until I got involved in buying my first home. This subject came up again and again from our agent about making considerations for where we should move.
I guess I never thought of this from a business stand point, but it makes a great deal of sense as to how this could really affect the overall performance of your office. With the restoration of the downtown area I think this idea merges well with the direction Madison is heading in.
Thanks for the very insightful feedback!