In October, Google launched Google Cultural Institute in order to help preserve and promote culture online. As reported on The Verge, the site is currently home to a collection of 42 web exhibitions, with everything from the Auschwitz concentration camp to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. What interesting is that this project is one of the first to sort entirely from the Google Paris office – it is a 100% Made in France project.
Google has always been seen as a Mountain View-centric company, with the best talent being acqui-hired and shipped to California (Sparrow was no exception) – but it seems that the outer reaches of the Google-verse are started to produce their own products. While Google’s Dublin office and European HQ features mostly marketing & sales people for the various European countries, it seems inevitable that Google will have to disperse its projects – after all, there’s only so much space in the Silicon Valley. I also imagine that there is much less competition for developers in Paris, Berlin & London than there is in the Silicon Valley – and I’m also positive that Google can out-pay any of the startups who might try to recruit from them.
Google Cultural Institute will continue to grow in the company months, particularly in content, according to one source. The project team, led up by Steve Crossan, includes former Jolicloud lead developer Jeremy Selier as well as startuper Erik Uzureau.