Slightly off-topic but funny. Guess who cooks there? (No I'm not suggesting a controversy).

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020109/3757266s.htm

Visit to Google's HQ provides blast from Silicon Valley past By Kevin Maney

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Whoa, is this a time warp or what?

I'm in Google's headquarters, otherwise known as the Googleplex, and it's sooo old-time Silicon Valley. By that, I mean the 1970s and 1980s, when technology companies could still be counterculture and cute and full of people who thought they could change the world before dinner.

Privately held Google runs a search engine. It's one of the most beloved entities on the Internet and one of the few pure-Internet firms that's profitable. Google is so fast and accurate, it is used by millions of viewers of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Google's statistics show spikes in usage after each question.

So I came here to see what magic goes on inside the Googleplex.

After you walk in and pass the baby grand piano, Google's culture feels like early Apple Computer, but more cuddly -- as if, instead of Steve Jobs, Apple had been run by Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Scooters lean against walls. Big exercise balls are everywhere. Walk around and you'll see piles of roller hockey equipment, random toys, a bin offering 13 kinds of cereal including Lucky Charms, a wall mural of the company's history done in crayon, a spalike room marked by a sign that says ''Googlers massaged here'' and a cafeteria where gourmet meals are served by the former chef for the Grateful Dead.

The place is crawling with twentysomething engineers who apparently prepare for work by dressing in the dark. All 280 employees went to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone together.

The quirkiness flows from the top. Google was founded by one guy who once built an inkjet printer out of Legos and another who hails from Moscow and studies trapeze.

As I'm getting to know Google, in walks Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO. The time warp seems complete. Schmidt, 46, has been around since the actual old days. He was Sun Microsystems' chief technology officer, then CEO of Novell. In August, he joined Google. ''It's a way of getting lots of praise,'' Schmidt says wryly. ''Basically, I'm just trying to hang on.''

Google processes 150 million searches a day. In the past year or so, it has become the search engine behind sites such as Yahoo and Netscape. It's been profitable the past four quarters, making half its money with ads and half by doing searches for other sites. Tech leaders such as Gene Kan of InfraSearch and New Internet Computer CEO Gina Smith are dedicated fans.

Google's secret is a patented technology called PageRank, developed by the founders, Larry Page (the Lego guy) and Sergey Brin (the Russian), both now 28. PageRank not only matches words, but it analyzes the links that point from one Web site to another. The idea is that if other sites point to your site, other Web site operators think your site is pretty good.

Turns out that it's a great way to figure which sites best match a user's query.

But what a computing problem! Google indexes and analyzes 1.5 billion Web pages. When I typed in a search for ''Mr. Ed's real name,'' Google started sorting 1.5 billion pages to find the pages that contain those words. Then Google found and analyzed all the links to all the pages that have those words. Finally, Google combined all of that to give me a list of results.

It did it in 0.17 seconds.

And sure enough, the first site Google listed told me TV's Mr. Ed was played by a horse named Bamboo Harvester, and he was made to talk by sticking a peanut butterlike substance under his gums, which he'd try to get out by moving his mouth and tongue.

Other search engines don't produce that kind of accuracy.

Google's speed is another part of the recipe. Google's Urs Holzle, who on this day is wearing a white golf shirt, jeans and bright red socks, figured out how to split up each search and spread it among about 100 PCs. The PCs do their parts simultaneously, then combine the information into an answer.

Google operates on about 12,000 PCs.

Page and Brin started Google as a school project at Stanford University in 1996. It was first called BackRub but renamed for a googol, which is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. In 1999, the pair got $25 million from hotshot venture firms Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. On Sept. 11, Google processed 2,000 searches per minute for ''World Trade Center.''

Schmidt first met Page and Brin casually, and they argued with him for 90 minutes about the architecture of the Internet. ''That's MY expertise,'' Schmidt says with mock disdain. ''How could THEY argue with ME?''

Schmidt outwardly looks like he's having fun. So what if he has to manage a culture that is anarchic and almost unmanageable? And so he might be a little old for scooters and Lucky Charms and parking lot roller hockey.

''This is a blast,'' Schmidt says. ''I want to hang out with 27-year-olds the rest of my life.''

Before I leave, Schmidt offers me a souvenir. Lots of companies have given me logo T-shirts, baseball hats and coffee mugs. But this is a first. He hands me a pair of Google boxer shorts.

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Feisty

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