Google Goes Globe-Trotting

The ultimate support structure is the Google environment itself. "Google is like Fantasy Land," says APM David Hammer, 24, who hails from Newton, Mass. "You're one of the chosen people." Actually, it's like being one of the Lost Boys from "Peter Pan." At headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Google has 17 no-cost dining areas, each focused on a specific cuisine, including Asian fusion vegan and tapas. There are swimming pools, health clinics, beach-volleyball courts and massage rooms.

The APMs' boss Mayer joins the group in China after being delayed in Mountain View. She instantly becomes the tour guide, den mother and taskmaster. "The most important thing in planning this trip is no downtime, ever," says Mayer. "Every moment must be accounted for, so no one has time for jet lag." (It's also in sync with the 24/7 work ethic of most Googlers.) She puts this theory in action one night after Kai-Fu Lee has hosted a huge meal of mysterious treats. Most APMs want to collapse—the data-crazy Googlers have calculated the average night's sleep on earlier trips as 3.7 hours—but a few want to sample night life. "Here's the plan," says Mayer, making an instant decision. "You can go to a nightclub or you can go with Kai-Fu to a tearoom—but you can't do neither."

On their first day in Bangalore, India, the Googlers go to the Commercial Street shopping district for a bartering competition. Each has 500 rupees (about $13) to spend on "items that don't suck," with a prize awarded to the one who attains them at the highest discount. For Jini Kim, it's the first time she's bargained with street vendors. "I usually buy at Neiman Marcus," she says, after getting the price of a necklace down from 375 rupees to 250. Dan Siroker wins by snaring a deep burgundy sherwani—a traditional Indian outfit—for a third of the asking price.

Actually, being an APM is a great way to hone negotiation skills. Kevin Tom, 22, who heads the Desktop Search team, found himself bargaining with a major computer company to get the Google software included on the firm's PCs. "I realized that this isn't something someone my age should be doing," he says. "We presented to them, and they said 'no,' and then we flew out there, for eight or nine days at the site, negotiating. Five days in, I realized I would get the deal done." Who needs experience?

In Bangalore the traffic is heart-stopping, the poverty disturbing, and a couple of APMs get sick from the food. And the trip to the village, while fascinating, leaves a bad taste for some. "We should have given them more than candy and notebooks," says APM Tom Tunguz, 25. But the meetings at the Bangalore offices are instructive, as the APMs learn that the company's most popular application in India is its social-networking site, Orkut—even more popular than search, though Google is the leader in that, too. A local tech leader clues them in on the advertising market ("Bollywood is everywhere … Cricket is king …"). Every couple of hours the lights dim and then come back on as the on-site generators kick in. "Welcome to India," says Shailesh Rao, the Google country manager.

The pace of the trip is starting to catch up to the Googlers as they wing toward their final overseas destination, Tel Aviv.