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Google (GOOG) is forking over $319 million to buy the Googleplex. The previous owner was Silicon Graphics (remember them?).

Here's what the Googleplex looks like from 1,600 feet (via Google Earth).

The New York Times reports that Google is building a massive double top-secret facility in The Dalles, Oregon.

The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to locally as Project 02, has been reported in the local press. But many officials in The Dalles, including the city attorney and the city manager, said they could not comment on the project because they signed confidentiality agreements with Google last year.

"No one says the 'G' word," said Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Port of Klickitat, Wash., directly across the river from The Dalles, who is not bound by such agreements. "It's a little bit like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Harry Potter."

Local residents are at once enthusiastic and puzzled about their affluent but secretive new neighbor, a successor to the aluminum manufacturers that once came seeking the cheap power that flows from the dams holding back the powerful Columbia. The project has created hundreds of construction jobs, caused local real estate prices to jump 40 percent and is expected to create 60 to 200 permanent jobs in a town of 12,000 people when the center opens later this year.

I won't say that I'm worried, but it does remind me of this.

Posted by edelfenbein at June 15, 2006 7:36 AM