TheMarker (note: I can't find an English version, so the link is to the Hebrew article) reports this morning that Google is planning to open a 2nd R&D facility in Tel Aviv, Israel just a few short months after opening the first one in Haifa, Israel. In unrelated news, Ha'aretz reports today that Google has acquired search related algorithms developed by an Israeli CS student, Ori Alon (congrats!).
Opening two R&D centers within less than 30 miles within less than a year speaks volumes as to the strength of the Israeli tech community. Kudos to Google for 'getting it'. The only real surprise here is that it took so long for any of the big internet companies to set up R&D shops in Israel in a serious way[1].
We're talking about a strip of land almost 1/5th the size of Maine (see map) that hosts R&D centers for Intel (3 R&D centers), Motorola (5 R&D centers), Microsoft[2], HP, Kodak, SAP, etc, etc. There are only a handful locations on the planet that have this kind of depth and breadth of technological talent, and Google's R&D will definitely benefit from being the first internet company to stick the flag (2 flags!) here.
So, Google - Bruchim Habaim! (=Welcome aboard!)
[1] Some of the GYMAAAE companies do have small R&D facilities in Israel which came along through acquisitions. However, Google is the first company in this space (to the best of my knowledge) to proactively open R&D facilities in Israel.
[2] To the best of my knowledge, Microsoft's R&D facility in Israel which has been around for many years is being used mostly for the traditional software development efforts and not for anything web related.
Comments