Google 2007 Annual Report Download - page 29

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Please find page 29 of the 2007 Google annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

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Culture and Employees
We take great pride in our company culture and embrace it as one of our fundamental strengths. Our culture
encourages the iteration of ideas to address complex technical challenges. In addition, we embrace individual thinking and
creativity. As an example, we encourage our engineers to devote as much as 20% of their time to work on independent
projects. Many of our significant new products have come from these independent projects, including Google News,
AdSense for content and orkut.
We began as a technology company and have evolved into a software, technology, internet, advertising and media
company all rolled into one. We take technology innovation very seriously. We compete aggressively for talent, and our
people drive our innovation, technology development and operations. We strive to hire the best computer scientists and
engineers to help us solve very significant challenges across systems design, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data
mining, networking, software engineering, testing, distributed systems, cluster design and other areas. We work hard to
provide an environment where these talented people can have fulfilling jobs and produce technological innovations that
have a positive effect on the world through daily use by millions of people.
We have assembled what we believe is a highly talented group of employees. Despite our rapid growth, we constantly
seek to maintain a small-company feel that promotes interaction and the exchange of ideas among employees. We try to
minimize corporate hierarchy to facilitate meaningful communication among employees at all levels and across
departments, and we have developed software to help us in this effort. We believe that considering multiple viewpoints is
critical to developing effective solutions, and we attempt to build consensus in making decisions. While teamwork is one
of our core values, we also significantly reward individual accomplishments that contribute to our overall success. As we
grow, we expect to continue to provide compensation structures that are more similar to those offered by start-ups than
established companies. We will focus on very significant rewards for individuals and teams that build amazing things that
provide significant value to us, our advertisers and our users.
At December 31, 2007, we had 16,805 employees, consisting of 5,788 in research and development, 6,647 in sales
and marketing, 2,844 in general and administrative and 1,526 in operations. All of Google’s employees are also
equityholders, with significant collective employee ownership. As a result, many employees are highly motivated to make
the company more successful.
Seasonality
Both seasonal fluctuations in internet usage and traditional retail seasonality have affected, and are likely to continue
to affect, our business. Internet usage generally slows during the summer months, and commercial queries typically
increase significantly in the fourth quarter of each year. These seasonal trends have caused and will likely continue to
cause, fluctuations in our quarterly results, including fluctuations in sequential revenue growth rates.
Available Information
Our web site is located at www.google.com, and our investor relations web site is located at
http://investor.google.com. The information on or accessible through our web sites is not part of this Annual Report on
Form 10-K. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and
amendments to such reports are available, free of charge, on our investor relations web site as soon as reasonably
practicable after we electronically file or furnish such material with the SEC. Further, a copy of this Annual Report on
Form 10-K is located at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20549. Information on
the operation of the Public Reference Room can be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains
an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding our filings at
www.sec.gov.
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