Because of the "permatemps" lawsuit against Microsoft back in the day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp), tech comp

Because of the "permatemps" lawsuit against Microsoft back in the day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp), tech companies almost always hire contractors via staffing firms. I'm sure Google is no exception. I also don't think it's particularly important to this story, but ymmv.