Google Inc. has dramatically expanded its presence in Manhattan in the past year, adding roughly 750 people to its outpost in 2011 in the most prominent example of a technology company shifting its focus toward New York.
After acquiring four New York companies and going on a hiring spree for its media and advertising arms, Google now has about 2,750 employees in New York City, a 38% increase from 2010, the company told The Wall Street Journal. That's faster growth than for the company overall, which expanded 33% from 2010 to 2011.
"Many of the most talented and creative engineers and scientists in our field of computer science want to be here…there's a critical mass in the city," says Alfred Spector, the vice president of research and special initiatives based in Google's New York office.
Google's expansion in New York—once seen as too expensive for tech start-ups—has helped fuel a perception that the city is in the midst of a technology industry boom. It comes as Facebook, Hewlett-Packard and other companies expand their New York presences, and Cornell University moves forward with an engineering campus on Roosevelt Island.
"Increasingly every part of the economy really is the tech sector, and the tech sector really is every part of the economy," said Seth Pinsky, president of the city's Economic Development Corp. "There is no industry in which New York is a world leader where technology doesn't play an important role and won't play an important role going forward."
Google has cemented its status in New York since 2000, when a one-person ad-sales team began working out of a Starbucks on West 86th Street. Two years later, it had moved to an office in Times Square with around 70 employees before moving to its Chelsea offices at 111 Eighth Ave. in 2006.
In December 2010, it purchased that immense brick building for $1.9 billion.
Although Google's engineering efforts are still driven out of its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, the New York office is now a powerhouse for both its engineering and advertising work force.
After acquiring four New York companies and going on a hiring spree for its media and advertising arms, Google now has about 2,750 employees in New York City, a 38% increase from 2010, the company told The Wall Street Journal. That's faster growth than for the company overall, which expanded 33% from 2010 to 2011.
Google's expansion in New York—once seen as too expensive for tech start-ups—has helped fuel a perception that the city is in the midst of a technology industry boom. It comes as Facebook, Hewlett-Packard and other companies expand their New York presences, and Cornell University moves forward with an engineering campus on Roosevelt Island.
"Increasingly every part of the economy really is the tech sector, and the tech sector really is every part of the economy," said Seth Pinsky, president of the city's Economic Development Corp. "There is no industry in which New York is a world leader where technology doesn't play an important role and won't play an important role going forward."
Google has cemented its status in New York since 2000, when a one-person ad-sales team began working out of a Starbucks on West 86th Street. Two years later, it had moved to an office in Times Square with around 70 employees before moving to its Chelsea offices at 111 Eighth Ave. in 2006.
In December 2010, it purchased that immense brick building for $1.9 billion.
Although Google's engineering efforts are still driven out of its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, the New York office is now a powerhouse for both its engineering and advertising work force.
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