What makes Google

I came across (via joel.reddit.com) a fascinating article about Google today. It's basically an inside look at how Google in many cases has built their own technology in order to best fir their needs. From the article, you get a sense of just how important open source technology has been for Google and how it's beneiftted them. We also get a sneak peek (pictured) at that huge globe they have on display that shows queries being ran thru Google in real-time. What I would give to see this in person. Everytime I hear it, it just sounds so wickedly cool. Anyway, what I dug was how the article touched upon what Google has built and how they use it. Like their custom web server:

Google created its own Web server instead of using the open source Apache Web server, which underpins more than 60% of Web sites. Google's Web server can run on more machines and balance workloads among servers more effectively than Apache for Google's large code base, which contains lots of dependencies among programs, DiBona says. The company's approach to software like the Common Gateway Interface standard for linking databases to dynamic Web pages may be harder to use than with Apache, but it runs faster. "If we can eke out 10% to 20% better performance, we can save a lot of power, AC, and people," DiBona says.

Or thier application that tracks job applicants:

A tracking system automatically pulls information on job applicants, gives a hiring manager a job candidate's resumé, offers questions to ask, and sends the manager an e-mail after the interview asking what he or she thought of the candidate. Job interviews can involve logic questions, writing code, talking about software architecture, and generally proving to Google's brain trust that the applicant is a fast learner, since the company doesn't keep people working on the same problems for very long.

Overall, it just sounds like an awsome place to work if you're techinically minded. Good read.  ¶ 2:17 PM