14 DAY TRIAL // According to the German Welt Online, Google has opened a new branch office in Germany. The search engine company, which went to Hamburg in 2001, now has 5 offices in Germany totaling no less than 300 employees. Berlin is the latest to go on the list of Google's locations in Germany, right next to Hamburg, D?sseldorf, Frankfurt/Main and Munich. The more recently acquired office space is said to be of only 150 square meters, which literally makes it the smallest branch in Germany.
The new Berlin Google office is expected to house Google's new chief lobbyist, Annette Kroeber-Riel. It appears that Kroeber-Riel will hold the position that is internally entitled "European Policy Counsel." Kroeber-Riel represents Google in industry associations like the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and NewMedia (Bitkom). She is also expected to promote Google's positions to consumer protection workers and politicians.
According to the Welt, Kroeber-Riel will have quite a lot of things to do on her hands, mainly because of the recent growth in criticism against Google. It appears that the criticism is related to "privacy concerns." The new Berlin Google office isn't going to house software development, unlike the Munich and Zurich locations. Google doesn't specify all its German branch offices on its main Google address list, but only the Hamburg office.
Before joining the team, Kroeber-Riel has worked as a policy manager for VeriSign, which might be the reason why she was Google's choice for the Berlin office. She has also done some work as a co-author of a blog post on Google's official Public Policy Blog, which expressed hope that "openness is front and center" in the policies of the European Commission and governments.
The Mountain View company has a number of other offices in Europe, all of which are based in major European cities like London, Madrid, Paris or Milan.