Photos: At home with Google and friends
Fancy seeing what kind of office the Google UK team work in? Have a look at our pics and behold a game room even we're impressed by
Offices are usually very dreary places filled with boring furniture and discontent -- but it all depends on who you work for. Last year we took some pictures of Google's UK office and you loved it, so a year later we've gone back to Victoria, in London, and snapped some shots of previously unseen areas, including a rather impressive games room. Check out how Googlers work, rest and play in the UK Googleplex.
There's nothing like watching a work presentation from a hammock, right? If you look at the top right corner of this picture you'll notice a large red hammock positioned close to a podium. Keeping comfortable and relaxed clearly rates highly in Google's approach to work -- we can't say we disagree at all.
It's not all about meetings at though -- good food and plenty of it is a great way to enjoy your day at work. This free, help-yourself café offers cereal, ice-cream, an array of chocolate bars and more. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get our hands on any of the food from the café, but Crave's vending machine isn't too bad. If you like Monster Munch.
After you've filled your belly with munchies, what better way to chill out than play on your favourite console, or all of them? Not only does Google have every current games console, there's also a full-sized arcade machine, a pool table, a giant Connect4 and a fussball table. Our buddies at GameSpot can match the consoles, but we need the fuss.
Here's a flock of Wiimotes, although we didn't catch a glimpse of Google's games collection. We wonder if Google UK has a gaming clan that fancies its luck against the best Crave has to offer? So what do you say Google, reckon you can beat us?
Aww, it's good to see that even the employees of this technological behemoth still value a good old game of Connect4. Google's geniuses know the perfect play theory to guarantee a win from the start. Maybe that's why no one was playing.
When we first saw these cupboards we thought Google might be literally organising search results using tiny boxes -- but people-powered search is just crazy talk. Nope, these boxes hold almost every phone on the market, in order for the Google Mobile team -- based here in the mobile-mad UK -- to test all their latest services.
The balls room, as we like to call it, is where Googlers can mess with balls and stuff. It's one seriously kitted-out office. We discovered that Googlers can even bring in their pets, but apparently they prefer dogs to cats, which outraged our in-house cat fans -- there was even talk of a boycott. Google obviously doesn't appreciate how cool it is to have cats in the office.