As trains bring its staff to Killarney for a conference, the search engine is set to keep on rolling, writes JOHN COLLINS

GOOGLE’S IRISH operations will expand as a result of the internet company’s renewed investments in staff and products which it announced at its third-quarter results presentation last week.

“A majority of our global revenue goes through here and so, as our global revenue grows, we’ll be expanding consistent with that,” said the company’s chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt on a visit to Killarney yesterday for an internal company conference.

“Our global revenue is growing faster than our US revenue.”

The internet giant, which spans online search to software, currently employs about 1,500 staff at its European headquarters in Dublin, out of a global total of 20,000, and booked revenues of €5.282 billion through Dublin in 2007. Asked if that meant additional staff would be added, Schmidt was emphatic: “We will be – it’s an absolute fact.”

Three chartered trains and at least six aircraft were used to bring about 2,500 “Googlers” – the cutesy name that Google employees happily give themselves – to Killarney yesterday for its Engage 09 conference for sales staff.

Schmidt and his staff arrive on the crest of a wave. Late on Thursday night, Google became the latest US corporation to surprise Wall Street with profits well ahead of analysts’ expectations.

During its third quarter, Google achieved 7 per cent growth in revenues on an annual basis to a record $5.9 billion (€3.95 billion), and a 27 per cent jump in net profits.

Although Schmidt, who is an adviser to the current US administration, fell short of calling the end of the recession, he said Google was over the worst, comments which he reiterated in Kerry yesterday.

In further good news for the Irish operations, Google’s international business – ie everything outside of the US – now accounts for 53 per cent of the firm’s revenues and came in at €3.1 billion during the quarter, up 19 per cent year on year.

Citing the strong education system, Google’s relationship with IDA Ireland and its good experience here to date, Schmidt said he had no concerns about the cost of doing business in Ireland.

“This is still a very good place to be hiring on an incremental labour costs basis and I would prefer to put the people here,” he said. “I’ve got the workforce. They are well-educated. I’ve got the management team and I’ve got the infrastructure here already. We actually do the math very carefully.”

Google’s growth in the 11 years since its foundation has been unprecedented, even compared to the rapid pace of growth of the internet. Having used advertising profits generated from its highly accurate search engine, it has expanded into other areas such as e-mail, online video and the productivity software such as word-processing and spreadsheets once dominated by Microsoft.

In the last year, it has launched a web browser called Chrome which is the precursor to the launch of an operating system of the same name. This will see it compete directly with Microsoft’s cash cow, Windows.

Despite this, Schmidt won’t be drawn on competition with the world’s largest software company.

“I’d prefer not to talk about Microsoft,” he says matter of factly. “Microsoft can talk about Microsoft and Google but I’d prefer to just talk about Google.”

Google’s massive share of the online advertising market has seen it shake up the media marketplace in the US and it is rapidly having a similar effect in Europe. Schmidt believes, however, there will be a bigger pot for everyone and that old media like television and newspapers will simply have to adapt.

“I’ve always believed that aggregate media advertising will be growing. I also believe that there will be dramatic shifts from one [media] to another. Your view of that depends on where you are.”

Despite having visited Ireland in the early 1990s when he was an executive with Sun Microsystems, Schmidt claims not to be well-versed enough to comment on our hopes for economic recovery. However he offers some very general advice for those steering the Ireland Inc ship. Not surprisingly, it revolves around investment in broadband.

“The right way to do it is to light up Ireland with fibre,” he says, “and to do that systematically and over a five-to-10-year period. I would argue, with the quality of the workforce you see here, that Ireland could really take advantage of that. You have the people. It looks pastoral but behind it all, you have some very sharp people.”