Google (NSDQ: GOOG) developers responsible for much of the company’s AdSense, Maps, Local, Chrome, Android and speech products now have a new-look home in the UK.
The company has just opened a new floor at its Victoria, London, office that is home to over 350 engineers.
Home to a realistic “forest”, break-out rooms named after programming languages, a cafe with a table made from recycled coffee beans, a chocolate fountain and replete with play things, the new fourth floor is every inch a developers’ playground.
“This site has set a new standard for what an engineering floor should look like,” Google’s VP for Europe and emerging markets engineering Nelson Mattoss told a gathering at the centre on Monday night.
“The design was driven and project-managed by our London engineers. It is within informal environments that ideas come out. A relaxed environment is very important to us.”
Google’s London engineers are driving personalisation across web, business and maps search, particularly on mobile, with much of Google’s Android development having been led from there.
“Products like AdSense are driven in part out of this office,” Mattos said. “It was the London office that spearheaded Google’s entry to the mobile space.”