Leading internet search site Google has chosen Ireland over Switzerland as the location for its first international operations centre outside the US.

Announcing the deal, Ireland’s minister for enterprise, trade and employment Mary Harney said: “This is fantastic news for Ireland. Google is truly a household name for internet searching and its decision to locate in Dublin positions Ireland as a prime location for global internet services.”

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Google, which has its headquarters in California, employs about 500 people and has become one of the hottest search sites on the web in the past couple of years, averaging about 15 million visitors per week in the US alone. The company was founded in the mid-1990s by two Stanford University graduate students in their 20s and the name comes from the word googol, which is the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros.

Google recently launched a sales campaign in Europe with its paid-for listings service. The new Dublin operations centre will eventually provide full administrative, legal and other support services to the group’s European, Middle Eastern and African operations. The US company will also locate its computer network hardware in Dublin, giving a boost to the region’s image as a ‘connected’ centre.

Ireland’s development agency IDA and local telecommunication service companies worked together to bring Google over from the US. Overall, the project will create more than 200 jobs in the next three years.

A spokesperson for IDA Ireland told fDI: “Google’s arrival confirms Ireland’s ability to provide the broadband capacity needed and the ability to source a multilingual staff.” He said that the country’s favourable tax structure also played a part in Google’s decision.

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