The New San Francisco Tech Boom is On (and Google Wants to Hire You)

The New San Francisco Tech Boom is On (and Google Wants to Hire You)

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Yesterday, Mozilla, the developer of the popular Firefox browser, became the latest tech sector star to announce that it will soon be opening an office in San Francisco.


So it's probably time to state the obvious, and that is that around here, the rush is on. Yep, we've got another full-fledged tech boom on our hands.

Over at CNET headquarters in Soma yesterday, I was marveling at the array of top-notch correspondents and bloggers they employ, which easily rivals Bloomberg TV's growing team down on The Embarcadero, which I profiled here recently.

The journalists at CNET, Bloomberg, and elsewhere I've spoken with all say that the pace of innovation occurring here in the city easily matches what they witnessed in the mid-90s during the original Internet boom, and that it may well soon surpass it.

Why?

Because this time, the factors driving innovation are multiple -- mobile, social, local -- not to mention gaming, shopping, and the entire data-driven, cloud-based, ever-more personalized world we are entering where no one yet knows the rules of the game, let alone the way this new game is ultimately going to be played.

Maybe the biggest stealth employer now active in the San Francisco market is Google. Yes, its main campus remains down in Mountainview on reclaimed swampland that probably will eventually be returned to its natural state, but check out the number of job openings the search giant has listed here this week, at least 65, by my count.

Here is how Google sells these opportunities to job-seekers:











"With the lights of Oakland and the Berkeley Hills to our East, the home of the SF Giants within walking distance, and the bustling life of the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood right outside, Google's San Francisco office is located in the hot spot for the city's tech companies.

"Easily accessible via SF MUNI and BART, the San Francisco Office is home to Google.org, Engineering, Product, Advertising Sales and Operations, DoubleClick, and Corporate Communications. Having an office here allows us to not only be more responsive to our users and customers, but also helps us to nurture client relationships with San Francisco-based companies.

"Creativity and innovation drive our SF office."

The Chamber of Commerce couldn't have put it any better.

Meanwhile, one of the much smaller local companies I think it is wise to keep an eye on, Storify, emerged from beta on Monday, so now you can post any story you wish using Facebook and Twitter posts from others as part of your source material. 

A social media journalist's dream come true.

But wait, there's more. Check out what the SF Gate had to say on Monday:
Tech jobs in the city have grown by some 77% the past five years. So my question to you is -- what shall we call this boom that so far does not have a name?

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