Google Purchases Its First Home

noparkingzone writes "ZDnet is reporting that Google has purchased the garage that the company first called home for an undisclosed sum. The Menlo Park structure was owned by a friend of one of Brin's girlfriends. Leased to Serge and Brin by Susan Wojcicki for around $1,700 per month in 1998, the original Googleplex is intended to be preserved as part of the company's living history."

Heh

Man, I wish I could purchase a few of the places I've lived in ...

... so I could burn them down! What horrible places to live. Ick.

Re:Heh

I've wanted to do the same to some of the places I've worked in. Especially since that incident involving my stapler...

Still waiting for the Real Estate Bubble to Pop

It's a sad state of affairs in the real estate market today if that little house is all Larry & Serge can afford with their jobs.

$1700 rent for a Garage!

That must have been one sweet slab...

California

Only there would you pay 1700/month to live in a garage!

$1,700 a month?

$1,700 month to rent a garage? That much a month would cover the entire house (and utilities) in this part of the USA.

Dan East

Re:$1,700 a month?

No kidding! For that price in Ohio I could get a *huge* garage (w/ attached house), and still have money left over for cable internet (and like 15 digital pr0n channels, er I mean cinemax). $1700/mo 'help with the mortgage' makes me choke.

That's because

For that price in Ohio I could get a *huge* garage (w/ attached house), and still have money left over

That's because nobody wants to live in Ohio.

That's cool and all...

... but is it really front page news?

I mean, I congratulate the couple on their new house, but come on... :)

Re:That's cool and all...

No, it's not. This is the kind of crap that I'd expect to see on Digg, not Slashdot.

Oh, you can go ahead and mod my comment down now. I have the karma points to spare.

...sell, sell, sell...

OK, in the past few weeks we've learned that Google's founders got into a catfight over a luxury airplane, let their employees do whatever the fuck they want during work hours (Wizards of the Coast style?) and are concentrating on cementing their "early" history. I'm not a shareholder, but if I was, I'd clicking the "Sell" button as fast and often as I could...

It's good to be a billionaire

"owned by a friend of one of Brin's girlfriends"

Must be nice to have billions and multiple girlfriends.

Was it a special garage?

$1700 seems steep, even for today's standards.

Sometimes there SHOULD be an apostrophe

the original Googleplex is intended to be preserved as part of the companies living history.

'So often you 'see the here come's an S u'sage of apo'strophe's, but heres one ca'se where it actually belong's and wa's not u'sed.

Grumble grumble grammar nazi blah blah.

Enumerating the number of googles...

Woo, always cool when big companies remember their roots. But, and with flame-proof suit on...Google may be huge but they're only one company. So in the intro text:

the original Googleplex is intended to be preserved as part of the companies living history.

That "companies" should be "company's" - more info on this common grammar mistake at the Apostrophe Protection Society [fsnet.co.uk]. Arguably a nitpick I know, but on something as well-read as Slashdot it's nice to try and set an example :)

Preserved?

the original Googleplex is intended to be preserved as part of the companies living history.

So is this going to be a Graceland type of deal? How soon can we make pilgrimages to the historic garage, walk through the sacred Jungle Room, gaze upon Serge and Brin's actual preserved empty chip packets, discarded pizza boxes, broken ethernet cards, and sequinned jumpsuits? Will there be velvet paintings at the gift shop?

To put things in perspective...

8 years of Google might seem like a long time, but remember that development of Duke Nukem Forever was started before Google even existed, so it's not that long.

Serge and Brin?

Isn't it Sergey Brin and Larry Paige?

Talk about ridiculous....

I love Google as much as anyone else, but talk about utterly self-indulgent. Yes, they are cool, but they are no HP, not yet anyway. Once they get to 20 years old and contributed as much as HP has over the decades, THEN start worrying about keeping track of your legacy. Right now, all they are is a great search engine, great mail service, and bunch of free (but cool) software like Picasa. They are cool and convenient, but I would hardly describe Google's contributions as important or essential... not yet. If they disappeared overnight, people would be a bit pissed, but every single one of their contributions could be replaced by another service.

In other news...

Not to be outdone, Microsoft has purchased the back seat of the '62 Camaro where Bill Gates' mother was knocked up by satan.

They plan to 'preserve the property'...

"We plan to preserve the property as a part of our living legacy", says Google spokesman Jon Murchinson.

I have a feeling the house is about to get a makeover...

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The Slashdot Investment Report

Although a growing percentage of the Slashdot demographic considers under-car light-effects and Digg.com to be good investments, the more experienced Slashdot visitors know a good potential for return when they see it.

Slashdot Investments Inc is bullish on California garages. That's right, we are marking this a strong BUY. Analysts agree that all creativity has either been crushed out of US corporations by bureaucracy or simply shipped to Bangalore to learn some manners.

The future of US creativity is clearly back where HP, Apple, Sun, Microsoft and Occidental Petroleum started: back among the old tires, oil stains, ham radios and bicycle parts.

Why, even the iPod was discovered in a California garage 10 years ago by a guy who was dosed with Klum-Sharapova Rays while trying to convert a personal massage device into a remote control for his Blaupunkt.

Forget California houses, they have weird things in them like Wozniak's Cave. The real potential is back in the Camaro Cradle... the Beemer Bedroom... in short, in the Tranny House!

Now's the time to get in on the ground floor of California garages! Call now, Vista and MemoryCard accepted.

Until next month... Happy profits!

Date 'em all!

by a friend of one of Brin's girlfriends.

Man, how many girlfriends does Brin have?

A garage as big as a football field?

$1700 a month!?!

Please remember that's

a.) nearly 10 years ago and
b.) rented from a friend (therefore probably a lot less than the market price)

So I got to assume that if you don't have 12k a months _at least_ you're a pretty poor guy in Menlo Park?

Remember that kids, next time you read job offerings from california...

Serge and Brin?

Last I checked, it was either Page and Brin or Larry and Sergey. Poor Larry never gets no respect.

Choke!

Brin had a girlfriend... AND he made a billion dollar company? I think I've finally found proof that there's a heaven on earth!!!

"one of Brin's girlFRIENDS"?????

Geez...some guys have all the luck.

Although, with the general social reputation of those in the tech community, I'm surprised no
one else picked up on this.

Waste

Another case of companies with too much money, and no idea what to do with it. Yet the same Slashdot nubsacks that bitch when Microsoft wastes money, will cheer this.

Two faced, party of 20,000, your table is ready?

The kiss of death?

Hope this isn't a jinx. See what happened to the last company that preserved its garage:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/garage / [hp.com]

Dorks with a photo album

Reminds me of a guy I knew who kept a photo album of all the places he worked in sillycone valley. "And here's the watercooler where we talked about making robots..."

Google Map of the garage; Price $1,170,722

Here is the Google map [google.com] of the infamous garage. I had to look up Sue's address in a non-Google database (zabasearch.com) because I couldnt find it in Google.

Then I looked in the realtors database for best estimated market value, again not Google, but zillow.com.

Perhaps I'm just getting old...

...but when I read this story, it was all I could do to stifle a yawn.

The garage of Mssrs. Hewlett and Packard was designated a California Historic Landmark because it symbolized the birth of Silicon Valley.

Here I only see two pretentious punks "giving themselves a birthday present." What's their garage supposed to represent, I'm wondering? Today's Silicon Valley hubris?

Even Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, whose company's genesis also took place in a garage, didn't engage in this kind of masturbatory pursuit.

Pic of the garage here

smh.com.au has a picture of the garage. http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/google-buys-garage- with-a-history/2006/10/02/1159641250919.html [smh.com.au]

Exact address?

The original AP story [yahoo.com] (which includes a picture) noted:

Google asked The Associated Press not to publish the property's address, although it can easily be found on the Internet using the company's search engine.

But I have been Googling for the last half hour to no avail. It's not that I care so much for the exact address as much as I'm offended that some AP reporter is apparently a better Googler than me :). Can any of the Google hot-shots here find it?

$1,700 Per Month, For a Garage?!?

Maybe even living in the housing cost capital of the nation, the Northeast, I don't have a firm grip on real estate prices. Here, in the city, $1,700 per month will get you either a luxury apartment, a plush office apartment, or perhaps even a house rental. $1,700 mortgage = house. So why would anyone in 1998, years before the housing bubble, be paying $1,700 per month for just a garage? That's $20,400 per year, well over half of the nation's average income. Apparently, Google's spendthrift ways started early. Blowing loads of cash on real estate is never a good idea, especially not for start-ups. Sooner or later, Google's unhinged spending spree is going to bite them in the ass, just like it did those during the internet bubble.

Re:Money Better Spent

I think you may have just killed a tree. You were hugging it way too hard.

Re:Grammar Nazi

companies???? do you mean company's ???? between this and all of the thens where there should be thans, what the hell is happening to gramar in American English?????

If only you had asked, "What the hell is happening to spelling and capitalization in American English?" Then your situational irony would be complete.

Re:In other news.....

Also, Steve Ballmer purchases the original chair he threw. He will have it restored and displayed in the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond. The famous chair will bear a plaque with the words "I'll f*ck!ng kill Google."