Skip to main content

We looked back at Google's corporate web pages from 2009. They show how far the company's culture has changed in more than a decade. (GOOG)

* Google has transformed more than any other Silicon Valley company in the last decade – and a trip back to its old corporate website reveals just how much. * A look at the website from 2009 shows just how much the company has transformed, from around 20,000 full-time employees of the time to more than 120,000 today. * "Google is not a conventional company, and we don't intend to become one," it read more than a decade ago. But employees say Google has become a much more corporate company. * Do you work at Google? You can contact this reporter securely using encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 628-228-1836) or encrypted email (hslangley@protonmail.com). * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A lot has changed in the past decade – take a trip back to Google's website circa 2009 and you'll appreciate just how much. Google has arguably seen the biggest transformation of any Silicon Valley company in the last decade. In fact, Google isn't even in charge of Google anymore – it lives under parent company Alphabet. But the changes haven't been only structural: as Google has grown in size, its company culture has shifted dramatically. As of last count, there are 123,048 full-time employees on Google's payroll. In 2009, there were around just 20,000. This week, we journeyed back in time, via the Wayback Machine, to Google's old corporate information pages, and it reveals a lot about how the company has changed over more than a decade. "Google is not a conventional company, and we don't intend to become one," read the description on the company's Life at Google page back in 2009. "True, we share attributes with the world's most successful organizations – a focus on innovation and smart business practices comes to mind – but even as we continue to grow, we're committed to retaining a small-company feel." But many employees believe this "small-company feel," which Google tried to hold onto for so long, no longer exists, as it inevitably shifted to a more corporate culture over time. When cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin officially stepped down last year, it marked the end of an era for Google, but the culture change had been happening for several years – and insiders say 2018 was a major tipping point. Google's old website also had a list of the "Top 10 Reasons to Work at Google." Check them out: Some of these still ring true today, particularly the office perks, which have always been one of Google's great talent magnets – although employees have had to forego almost all of these while working from home during the pandemic. But while Google could boast about its great benefits for all employees in 2009, today the company has an enormous shadow workforce of contractors and vendors which outnumber full-time employees, yet don't enjoy many of the same benefits – something that the pandemic has further highlighted. 'Don't be evil' Take a look at Google's philosophical guidelines and things start to look even more dated. Take, for example, Google's rule that "you can make money without doing evil" – a nugget of corporate philosophy Google more famously codified as "don't be evil." But since 2018 Google has moved away from this motto, which no longer prefaces the company's code of conduct. It's also interesting to see how Google once described its internet-indexing PageRank technology. "This technique actually improves as the web gets bigger, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted," it read under commandment number 4: "Democracy on the web works." In the time since, Google's technology has grown so extraordinarily that it's now facing the possibility of multiple antitrust lawsuits being brought against its search and advertising business for using its monopoly power. There are plenty of other great nuggets that highlight how much Google has changed over the years, and we recommend you to go back and look at some of these pages yourself. Pay particularly close attention to the Google corporate management list which has changed considerably, not only in the names featured but in the corporate structure. You might notice a few of the old guard who have stuck around long enough to find a place inside CEO Sundar Pichai's list of direct reports. SEE ALSO: Meet the 15 Google execs who report to CEO Sundar Pichai and are leading the internet company's most critical businesses Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: A cleaning expert reveals her 3-step method for cleaning your entire home quickly
https://bit.ly/2BJlzBC

Popular posts from this blog

The 11 most important details we already know about the PlayStation 5, Sony's next-generation video game console set to arrive this year

* The PlayStation 5, Sony's next-generation game console that's deep in production, is scheduled to launch during the 2020 holiday season. * As you might expect, the PlayStation 5 is promised to be more powerful than the existing PlayStation 4 — and we've slowly been learning more about the next-gen console's new features since it was first revealed. * So far, Sony has offered a first glimpse at the new console via its new DualSense gamepad, and a tech demo highlighted the technical prowess of the new machine. * Here's everything we know so far about Sony's next-generation PlayStation console. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The PlayStation 5 is almost here. Sony's next-generation PlayStation game console is scheduled to arrive this holiday season, but we already know plenty of details about it right now: how powerful it is, its main features, and we've even gotten a good look at its new gamepad.  Here everything we kno...

Tokyo installed see-through public toilets in a park to let people inspect their cleanliness before using them, at which point the glass turns opaque

* Two see-through bathrooms have been installed in public parks in Tokyo. * They are made from "smart glass" designed so people can see how clean they are inside before using them. The glass turns opaque when the bathroom is locked and in use. * The stalls are part of a project that is redoing 17 of the city's public bathrooms with different designers to make them more accessible and appealing. * The goal is to fight assumptions that public toilets are "are dark, dirty, smelly, and scary," said the nonprofit foundation behind the project. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Tokyo has installed two see-through bathroom facilities in public parks, allowing people to see how clean they are before deciding to use them, at which point they turn opaque. The bathrooms are made of colored "smart glass," which turns opaque when the stalls are locked, said Shigeru Ban, the architect behind the designs. You can see how it works her...

Bill Gates says the world would need as many as 14 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine to stop the virus

* The world could need as many as 14 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Bill Gates said on Thursday in a blog post about the race to develop a way to make people immune to the disease. * "We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible," Gates said. * Gates said he had his eyes on eight to 10 promising candidates, adding that healthcare workers and people in low-income countries should be first in line once we find one that works. * While potential vaccines are progressing with historic speed, they're still months, or even years away, and the biggest challenge lies ahead in proving whether they are safe and effective in humans. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Bill Gates believes we may eventually need to produce as many as 14 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally and that we're anywhere from nine months to two years away from making tha...