4 ms·

Also note that Google acquired Swiss company Endoxon for their maps technology, providing them with many Swiss employees early on. Endoxon was much more advance

by Hermel 10y ago

Also note that Google acquired Swiss company Endoxon for their maps technology, providing them with many Swiss employees early on. Endoxon was much more advanced technology-wise than Google's own service at that time. That acquisition is also the reason why the Google maps team is located in Zurich.

harryf 10y ago
Urs Hölzler is Swiss ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urs_Hölzle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urs_Hölzle ) and as employee #8 that probably has a bigger influence if at all. That said I beleive the Endoxon guys have had impact e.g. the current lead PM on Google Maps is one of the former Endoxon team (this guy - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tYw4zNfqBNs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tYw4zNfqBNs ). The interesting thing - from what I hear from people working at Google Zürich - is less than 10% of those working there are Swiss. The location seems to be more about having a place to attract bright minds from Eastern Europe and even Israel that's still close enough so they can fly home easily for a weekend. So quota restrictions probably would really hurt here.
- mike_hearn 10y ago
  I joined the Swiss office when it was still pretty new, only about 70 people in total (today: over 2000). That was prior to the Endoxon acquisition. I don't think their technology was actually better than Google Maps even at the time, but they had basically matched it with far fewer resources and the team there had easily proven their competence at mapping, so joining forces made sense. I worked with a Swiss guy who came from Endoxon: quiet, intense and very competent, like so many Swiss people I know. With respect to the office being located there in the first place, the story I heard was that it was basically a combination of Urs and ETH. The office was never intended to be huge, but it was successful in attracting candidates at a much higher rate than other European offices and thus quickly became the largest, making it the de-facto European engineering HQ. And yes this was very expensive for the company indeed, but luckily Google prints money so it wasn't a big issue. Other less fortunate companies would have had to impose hiring caps or quotas I think, to avoid Swiss salaries becoming dominant. I don't think unlimited or limited EU immigration has made a huge difference. It's always been true that most employees in the Swiss office are not Swiss. When I joined Switzerland required visas for EU citizens as well, I had to prove I had a job and a degree to get in, and the Swiss office is full of Americans, Russians, etc. Local kantonal control is very strong in Switzerland and Kanton Zürich very much likes having a local employer with bottomless hiring needs and a bottomless bank to pay them with. I guess Google Zürich is closing in on employing 1% of the cities population, so they can usually get the visas they need.

by Hermel 10y ago

harryf 10y ago

Urs Hölzler is Swiss ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urs_Hölzle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urs_Hölzle ) and as employee #8 that probably has a bigger influence if at all. That said I beleive the Endoxon guys have had impact e.g. the current lead PM on Google Maps is one of the former Endoxon team (this guy - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tYw4zNfqBNs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tYw4zNfqBNs ). The interesting thing - from what I hear from people working at Google Zürich - is less than 10% of those working there are Swiss. The location seems to be more about having a place to attract bright minds from Eastern Europe and even Israel that's still close enough so they can fly home easily for a weekend. So quota restrictions probably would really hurt here.

mike_hearn 10y ago
I joined the Swiss office when it was still pretty new, only about 70 people in total (today: over 2000). That was prior to the Endoxon acquisition. I don't think their technology was actually better than Google Maps even at the time, but they had basically matched it with far fewer resources and the team there had easily proven their competence at mapping, so joining forces made sense. I worked with a Swiss guy who came from Endoxon: quiet, intense and very competent, like so many Swiss people I know. With respect to the office being located there in the first place, the story I heard was that it was basically a combination of Urs and ETH. The office was never intended to be huge, but it was successful in attracting candidates at a much higher rate than other European offices and thus quickly became the largest, making it the de-facto European engineering HQ. And yes this was very expensive for the company indeed, but luckily Google prints money so it wasn't a big issue. Other less fortunate companies would have had to impose hiring caps or quotas I think, to avoid Swiss salaries becoming dominant. I don't think unlimited or limited EU immigration has made a huge difference. It's always been true that most employees in the Swiss office are not Swiss. When I joined Switzerland required visas for EU citizens as well, I had to prove I had a job and a degree to get in, and the Swiss office is full of Americans, Russians, etc. Local kantonal control is very strong in Switzerland and Kanton Zürich very much likes having a local employer with bottomless hiring needs and a bottomless bank to pay them with. I guess Google Zürich is closing in on employing 1% of the cities population, so they can usually get the visas they need.