Most Popular Social Websites & Their Office

Have you ever wondered the office environment where the young and zealous engineers of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, and LinkedIn work in? Today we present to you guys the awesome compilation of “Inside the Offices of the Top 6 Most Popular Social Websites

1. Facebook

With over 400 million registered users and more than 60 million status updates posted each day, Facebook is currently touted as the world’s most popular social networking website, beating arch-rival MySpace. The social networking juggernaut is co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, who were roommates and fellow computer science students at Harvard University.

Designed by the folks over at Studio O+A, the engineers at Facebook are now working in a really cool office located at Palo Alto, California, USA. Before the redesign and construction of the 150,000-square-foot office, each of every Facebook employees were consulted to find out what they wanted and what would their work experience better and more productive. Based from the photos taken below, the new office is indeed much more cozy and colorful. I personally love the DJ set and the bender on the wall!

2. YouTube

Acquired by search-engine giant Google in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, YouTube is currently the world’s most popular video sharing website. On 9 June last year, YouTube video stream top a massive 1.2 billion in that single day. The video-sharing platform enables users to upload and share videos of different genres be it comedy, news broadcasts, music, etc. The YouTube headquarters is currently situated at San Bruno, CA, USA.

3. MySpace

Headquartered at Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media (owned by News Corporation), MySpace was once crowned as the world’s most popular social networking website but lost to Facebook, which has been experiencing ever-rising popularity in both Asia and Europe.

4. Twitter

Twitter is the world’s leading micro-blogging platform with over 54 million users, beating rival Plurk by a relatively huge margin. Twitter has recently moved into the sixth floor of 795 Folsom St., a 184,000-square-foot building, previously used by another social-networking firm, Bebo Inc., which is owned by AOL. Evan Williams’ wife Sara Morishige Williams was the brain behind the interior design of the 31,000 square foot office. So if you happened to past by the place, you can probably drop by and say ‘Hi’ to the Biz Stone, Evan Williams or Jack Dorsey, the co-founders of Twitter.

5. Flickr

Acquired by Yahoo! in March 2005 for an undisclosed fee, Flickr is one of the world’s largest and most popular image and video hosting website with over 3.6 billion images as of June 2009. Flickr is situated at 470 Sansome Street, San Francisco, USA.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of July 2009, it had more than 43 million registered users, spanning 170 industries. Its really cool office is located at Mountain View, CA, USA which is where the Googleplex (Google headquarters) is situated at.

Google logos - Do u know who makes them????

Google doodles, the drawings that are designed on, around and through the Google logo on our home page, have long been part of Google's history. As a Google intern in 2000, Google Webmaster Dennis Hwang began celebrating and marking worldwide events and holidays with doodles. Since then, the work of the doodle team has been seen by millions and reached cult status, with fans waiting with bated breath to see the next creation on the Google homepage. We spoke to Dennis about doodles and how he got a job that combined his two passions: technology and art.

Most people have to choose only one of their interests to pursue. How did you get such a cool job that meshes computers and art?

"I had an internship with Google in college. I was given the task of helping with websites creation, and I soon became an assistant webmaster. Before I joined Google, the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were already thinking about holiday logos…and when I joined, they knew I was studying art and suggested I should give it a shot. While being Google Webmaster is my main job, I've been doing doodles since then as a part-time project."

Is the doodle team constantly trying to keep up with current events and holidays?

"How far we work in advance depends. Sometimes, we react really quickly to current events. Some logos are created in less than 24 hours, such as the Mars Rover landing doodle. For different countries across the globe, if there's a special day and we think it's in line with the Google brand, we want to commemorate it."

Do you get suggestions from Google users?

"We get quite a lot of suggestions from users. We're really open to user feedback and having ideas sent to us because our users are really creative. For example, a French astronomer had emailed us about the Venus Transit, in which Venus casts a shadow on the sun every 122 years. During the transit, you'll see a black dot moves across the sun, so here is the logo we did."

How do you decide on the design of the drawings?

"First, we do a lot of brainstorming, search for images on Google, and absorb all the research. Then we apply a design that interacts with shape of the letters. I find that a bit more interesting."

Do you have favorite doodles?

"I have several personal favorites. Usually, artists' birthdays are the ones I spend the most effort on, like Magritte's birthday."

How difficult is it to reinvent recurring holidays?

"It's definitely a challenge, but it's one we look forward to. We're constantly looking for ways to be innovative with fresh ideas every year. There's only so many ways to draw a turkey or a pumpkin!"

Dennis' Top Ten Tips

1. Make sure your design complements the shape of the letters in the Google logo, but don't let that restrict your creativity.
2. Experiment with different media to see which one works best for your design (you can even create your doodle on your PC).
3. Don't over-complicate your design – simpler images often have the most impact.
4. Remember that your design could end up on the Google homepage, so imagine how it will look on screen.
5. To find inspiration around the "What I Wish for the World?" theme, try thinking about the future and how you would like it to differ from the present.
6. Remember to use color well and think about how it interacts with a white background.
7. Avoid commercial or copyrighted images.
8. Think outside the box – try to create a doodle that's different from your classmates and hasn't been done before.
9. Feel free to use the space behind and in front of the Google letters, but try to maintain your design's overall balance.
10. Have fun! "Doodle 4 Google" is all about creativity and enjoying designing fun things. Think about how you want to change the world.

Sample Doodles

To help spark your imagination, we've put together a few favorite doodles created by Google Webmaster Dennis Hwang, whose designs celebrate worldwide events and holidays by incorporating images into and around the Google logo (you can also check out these winning doodles from last year's competition). We hope these designs will help you create your own doodle, but remember: creativity is key. Your doodle should be as unique as you are.

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  Australia Day

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  250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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  Earth Day

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  Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday

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  50th anniversary of discovery of DNA structure

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  Vincent van Gogh’s birthday

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  Albert Einstein’s birthday

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  Cricket World Cup, 2007

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  FIFA World Cup, 2006

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  Louis Braille’s birthday

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  St Patrick’s Day

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  Michelangelo’s birthday

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  Pablo Picasso’s birthday

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  Valentine’s Day

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  Claude Monet’s birthday

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  Andy Warhol’s birthday