Seek and ye shall find

From an operation with two employees, Google Switzerland has now grown into a company with over 1,500 employees from 75 nations. Today, Google operates its largest research and development center outside the USA at its Zurich site. Google's research focus is in Zurich: research is carried out here, but also testing and analysis. Many innovations and new services are implemented accordingly from Switzerland. One focus, as Matthias Meyer emphasizes, is on the further development of search. The corresponding area on which Google Switzerland is concentrating strongly in this context is the so-called "conversational search". Meyer himself has recently started wearing a smartwatch, a wristband with a screen instead of a time display - search queries can be directed verbally to the little wristband helper. "Because there are people," says Meyer, "who pick up their smartphone up to 150 times a day. The mobile trend is unbroken: Mobile search queries more than doubled last year alone. Mobile devices, so-called wearables, are becoming increasingly important."

Google's innovation base in Switzerland is growing as it rents new office space in Europaallee near Zurich's main train station. In connection with this, the group not only wants to strengthen its location in Switzerland, but also create new jobs. However, the first office is not scheduled to be occupied until the end of 2015. But then there will be heavy investment. Patrick Warnking, Country Director of Google Switzerland, says: "Switzerland is a top location for innovation, and we are delighted to be investing further here. We are very happy with our partnerships in research, teaching and business and want to further expand our cooperation." In particular, Google intends to remain strongly committed to its existing partnerships with ETHZ/EPFL, SMEs, with the media and the export industry in the coming years. In Zurich, Google employees are working on the Google Maps map service, the Gmail e-mail service, the Google calendar, Google search and the YouTube video portal. Voice-based search for mobile devices is also to be driven forward in Zurich.

Review 2004 until 2014

The new offices in Europaallee are a follow-up step to the expansion in Zurich. The site already grew to become the largest development location outside the USA more than a year ago. The technology group opened new offices in the Hürlimann site in May 2013. The opening continued Google's successful history in Switzerland. The company started in Switzerland in 2004 - with two employees at Limmatquai in Zurich. The following year, Google moved to Freigutstrasse and in 2008 moved to the Hürlimann site, where the Swiss branch has been continuously expanded ever since. As a mark of distinction, the new building at Brandschenkestrasse 100 is adorned with 98 additional zeros: a reference to the name "Googol" after which the company was originally named.

One year after the new opening of the office premises in the Hürlimann-Areal, Google certified the first agency for Business View. This gave Cityguide the ability to create virtual tours of interiors nationwide and officially upload them to Google services. The "Google Maps Business View" service was intended as a logical complement to Google Street View. The new service allowed retailers, freelancers, restaurateurs and hoteliers to invite Google-trained photographers to create virtual tours of their interiors. The interiors were captured using special 360-degree camera technology. A few months later, in August of this year, Google started deleting links from Swiss people, because they had demanded this in the name of their right to be forgotten. As a result, the company had to delete outdated and inaccurate entries on the one hand, and on the other hand it has to comply with the public's right to information, for example when it comes to politicians. Google performed this triage on its own.

Around two months ago, Google published the largest current database on the digital Swiss. The new Consumer Barometer provides insights into Internet use, online shopping behavior, digital communication and device use in 56 countries - including Switzerland. Since October 23, 2014, Consumerbarometer.com has thus provided online-representative data on digital consumers in 56 countries. The market research institute TNS Infratest surveyed over 150,000 online users on behalf of Google in mid-2014. According to a statement issued by the Group at the time, the freely accessible market research program is primarily intended to help marketing and media decision-makers to optimally align their advertising measures with the needs of digital consumers.

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