Sergey Brin

Jeff Moore, Google Inc.'s lead recruiter in Cambridge, can't contain his grin. He's about to escort a visitor into the second floor of Google Cambridge. It's their coolest space, he said - high praise in an office like a designer dorm room around one corner and a techie fantasy land around another. Moore walked into a room tricked out to evoke a Nantucket beach house. The photo mural of the ocean on one wall is not quite convincing, but there's real wood planking on the faux porch.

Shifting from Google's CEO to executive chairman proved to be lucrative career move for Eric Schmidt. Google Inc. awarded Schmidt a compensation package valued at $101 million last year, according to a Friday regulatory filing. The amount is 322 times higher than the $313,219 package that Schmidt received in 2010 during his final full year as the Internet search leader's CEO. Schmidt, 56, ended a decade-long stint as Google's CEO last April and turned over the job to Google co-founder Larry Page.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has taken a break from his work on the Internet search leader's secret projects to make a surprise appearance at a technology conference. Although he shared few specifics, Brin told the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday that he remains as busy as he was during a decade-long stint as the company's president of technology. He switched to a stealth role earlier this year as part of a shake-up that ushered in his longtime partner, Larry Page, as Google's CEO. Brin has kept a low profile since the changes.

Now that he has been Google's CEO for a year, Larry Page may be ready to tackle some of the public-relations duties that typically accompany the job. Page opened up in a way that he hasn't previously with a Thursday dispatch that shared some of his thoughts about Google's past accomplishments and future possibilities. The post appeared on the company's website for investors and Page's personal profile on Google Plus, a social networking service that has become Page's pet project as he scrambles to counter the threat posed by Facebook's growing popularity.

NEW YORK — Google Inc. has awarded $100 million worth of equity to Eric Schmidt, who is stepping aside as chief executive but will stay with the company as executive chairman. Google said in a regulatory filing yesterday the stock and stock options will be granted on Feb. 2 and will vest over four years. The magnitude of the award is “unusual’’ for an executive who is transitioning out of the chief executive role — and may even be unusual for sitting chief executives, said David Wise, senior principal at management consulting firm Hay Group.

NEW YORK - A billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. For the first time, it takes more than $1 billion to earn a spot on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans. The minimum net worth for inclusion in this year's rankings was $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The new threshold meant 82 of America's billionaires didn't make the cut. Collectively, the people who made the rankings released yesterday are worth $1.54 trillion, compared with $1.25 trillion last year.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc. is financing its promise to make the world a better place with an initial commitment of nearly $1 billion to a philanthropic arm devoted to causes that mesh with the online search engine leader's crusade. The altruistic effort, formally disclosed yesterday under the umbrella of Google.org, follows through on a pledge that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company made last year as it prepared its ballyhooed initial public offering of stock. At the time, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin vowed to create a company "that does good things...

Now that he has been Google's CEO for a year, Larry Page may be ready to tackle some of the public-relations duties that typically accompany the job. Page opened up in a way that he hasn't previously with a Thursday dispatch that shared some of his thoughts about Google's past accomplishments and future possibilities. The post appeared on the company's website for investors and Page's personal profile on Google Plus, a social networking service that has become Page's pet project as he scrambles to counter the threat posed by Facebook's growing popularity.

NEW YORK -- Google Inc.'s mammoth initial public offering has netted its two cofounders an interesting side benefit: an entree into the upper echelons of Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans. Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. cofounder and chairman, was the nation's wealthiest person for the 11th straight year with a net worth of $51 billion, followed again by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman and chief executive Warren Buffett, with $40 billion. Perhaps more noteworthy is the ascent of Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined. It's a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you're eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space. These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined. It's a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you're eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space. These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars...

Jeff Moore, Google Inc.'s lead recruiter in Cambridge, can't contain his grin. He's about to escort a visitor into the second floor of Google Cambridge. It's their coolest space, he said - high praise in an office like a designer dorm room around one corner and a techie fantasy land around another. Moore walked into a room tricked out to evoke a Nantucket beach house. The photo mural of the ocean on one wall is not quite convincing, but there's real wood planking on the faux porch.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has taken a break from his work on the Internet search leader's secret projects to make a surprise appearance at a technology conference. Although he shared few specifics, Brin told the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday that he remains as busy as he was during a decade-long stint as the company's president of technology. He switched to a stealth role earlier this year as part of a shake-up that ushered in his longtime partner, Larry Page, as Google's CEO. Brin has kept a low profile since the changes.

I'M FEELING LUCKY: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 By Douglas Edwards Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 418 pp., $27 One company is powering the word-processing software I'm using to write this, the e-mail program I'm keeping open as I do so, and the Internet search I'm using to procrastinate. It's the same company that lets me say my destination into my phone, guides me there turn-by-turn, and handles the details of my personal schedule. All these services are free.

NEW YORK — Google Inc. has awarded $100 million worth of equity to Eric Schmidt, who is stepping aside as chief executive but will stay with the company as executive chairman. Google said in a regulatory filing yesterday the stock and stock options will be granted on Feb. 2 and will vest over four years. The magnitude of the award is “unusual’’ for an executive who is transitioning out of the chief executive role — and may even be unusual for sitting chief executives, said David Wise, senior principal at management consulting firm Hay Group.

It wasn’t so long ago that all of Google fit into a two-car garage and a couple of spare rooms, with space enough for a few forlorn appliances and an unused ping-pong table. How did this tiny company with a quirky name become not only a verb but perhaps the most influential company on the planet in just a decade? Can it possibly achieve both its ambitious goals and its lofty ideals? These two questions frame “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It’’ by longtime New Yorker writer Ken Auletta.

I'M FEELING LUCKY: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 By Douglas Edwards Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 418 pp., $27 One company is powering the word-processing software I'm using to write this, the e-mail program I'm keeping open as I do so, and the Internet search I'm using to procrastinate. It's the same company that lets me say my destination into my phone, guides me there turn-by-turn, and handles the details of my personal schedule. All these services are free.

NEW YORK - A billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. For the first time, it takes more than $1 billion to earn a spot on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans. The minimum net worth for inclusion in this year's rankings was $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The new threshold meant 82 of America's billionaires didn't make the cut. Collectively, the people who made the rankings released yesterday are worth $1.54 trillion, compared with $1.25 trillion last year.