Various arms of Google are, at the very least, attempting to take pictures of the entire world, solve the oil crisis, and inspire moon landings. It’s no wonder, then, that the central company increased its 2007 research and development budget by a considerable amount.
Google R&D Growing
Richard Waters and Kevin Allison report, “Only a handful of the 20 biggest spenders recorded an increase in R&D as a proportion of revenues last year. . . . Google was an exception. The internet search company’s R&D budget jumped 73 per cent to $2.1bn last year, putting it among the industry’s top 10 spenders for the first time.”
The pair later noted, “Google’s R&D spending now eats up nearly 13 per cent of its revenues, more than double the proportion of five years ago.”
Google now sits comfortably atop several markets, and might, in the middle of the recession, start concentrating on the here-and-now rather than the unknown future. Android, TV Ads, and all other sorts of interesting projects remain on the horizon, however, so such growth may continue in the years ahead.
As an added clue that no cutbacks are taking place: a “You should work at Google” box is visible on Google Labs.
