Google Apps users can expect to see significant improvements in the suite's voice- and video-chat capabilities, as the company builds on Gmail's current features in that area.Gmail's voice and video chats are now limited to one-to-one communications, but Google wants to broaden that capability to more than two participants and make it more robust all around for Apps."This [current Gmail capability] is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video [and voice] chat capabilities," said Rishi Chandra, a Google Apps product manager. "It's a great opportunity for us to push that space along."
With about 600 Seattle-area employees, Google's influence in the region pales in comparison to Microsoft's. But the Internet giant, whose friendly image has won over millions and millions of worldwide Web users, may have the chance to start small – with Kirkland.
"Google is a very, very important part of our high-tech sector," [Kirkland mayor Jim Lauinger] said. "The high-tech sector is growing rapidly in Kirkland. It's taking a breather right now, but it's going to grow."
Lastly, as I am wont to do, I asked [Google VP] Alan Eustace and [Google Kirkland site director] Scott Silver individually to boil down Google’s culture to one word. Neither took the bait. Eustace did say Google’s culture is quite uniform across its various centers worldwide. He used words like innovative, open to new ideas, community focused (versus competitive), happy, and high-energy, to describe the culture, but wouldn’t commit to just one of them.
Silver came closer to giving me one take-home message. “Engineers are in charge,” he said.
Today was the official grand opening of our new Kirkland campus. Here's a video of the event from TechFlash.com.
