So Google's been building a shop in The Dalles, Oregon for well over a
year now. They purchased at least 30 acres of land bordering the
Columbia, and broke ground last year. They've got a couple large
corrugated-tin buildings up already, and one building with 20-foot-high
cooling stacks on top, running full steam since months.
Why they chose The Dalles has been the subject of some debate. Several
reasons have been put forward: dirt-cheap and abundant electricity (The
Dalles has its very own hydroelectric dam); massive available bandwidth
(there's a major, underutilized fiber-optic cable running under The
Dalles); a nice place to live; Larry Page has taken up windsurfing.
But what I'm interested is in what they'll be doing there. It's all
very hush-hush right now--I know a guy working security at the
location, and he's not supposed to say "Google"--officially he's
"working down at the port." Also, my mom talked to a couple people
fishing near the site the other day--she suspected they worked for
Google, so asked them what was going on. They just laughed and said
"we can't tell you that!"
Why so secretive? Were other Google start-ups also kept under-wraps?
Is this simply SOPs for a major company, or is this the focus of a new
direction for Google?
Anyway, I'd love to hear some ideas about this--any rumors that I've
missed? Or news flashes from Google? Or simply blind speculation?
Walter Gildersleeve
Freiburg, Germany
