Innovation

Pittsburgh Google is expanding its local presence, hiring and moving to two floors at Bakery Square where it will take over 40,000 SF in the former Nabisco factory.

Knowing Google, the space is sure to be a bigger mind gym than the current digs at Carnegie Mellon's Collaborative Innovation Center in Oakland. Google offices are notoriously active, colorful places with game tables where "Googlers" can let their imaginations run wild.

The Pittsburgh office has created two new Google features on the company's 20% time policy, which encourages outlandish thinking as well as research: an astronomy app on the new Android phone, Nexus One, that identifies constellations when the phone is pointed at the night sky and Google Sky Map, says Andrew Moore, engineering director.

Just how many jobs will be created, Moore won't say. Moore was part of the major draw that attracted Google to Carnegie Mellon in 2005. Today Pittsburgh Google employs 100; new hires will be software engineers or engineering related.

"Google tries to put its offices in places where there are very talented and creative people," says Moore. "Pittsburgh is an excellent place for computer scientists. We are not worrying about numbers; when we find good people, we'll give them an offer."

Pittsburgh Google will continue to focus on machine learning and distance, constantly improving on the company's search and targeted advertising results, explains Moore. "I'm really excited about it because I think it's the first planetary scale machine learning system in the industry. We're on the cutting edge of technology here."

The $113 Bakery Square project in East Liberty will include offices, a hotel, retail, a restaurant and fitness center space. Google is expected to make the move in spring of 2010.

Earlier this year, Google acquired ReCAPTCHA, Inc. a spin-off company lead by Carnegie Mellon's computer science Professor Luis von Ahn.

"As a Pittsburgh person, one of the things I hope is that the offices here will help the boomerang effect, bringing back people who once lived here happily," says Moore. "I'd like to see Pittsburgh reach out and make others aware of the interesting opportunities here."

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Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Andrew Moore, Google

Image courtesy of Google
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