Canadian engineers are behind some of the most innovative new products at Google Inc., but that isn’t bringing those technologies to Canada any faster.
Developers based in Waterloo, Ont., had a major hand in developing the television feature of Google Fiber, an Internet and television service that the company boasts is up to 100 times faster than basic broadband speeds, but has no stated plans to come to Canada.
“[Fiber] is by far our fastest growing team in engineering in Canada over the past year,” Steve Woods, Google’s engineering director for Canada, said in an interview Wednesday. “We’ve been working on it quietly in Waterloo for about three years now.”
The Canadian team was particularly involved in developing the so-called “second-screen” experience, or the interaction between mobile and Google Fiber television. But the Canadian content has so far failed to convince Google to bring the much-touted service north of the border. Currently, it’s only available in Kansas City, Austin, Tx., and Provo, Utah, and “early discussions” are underway to introduce it to nine other metro areas in the U.S.
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“We’d like to see it in Canada but that’s not on our roadmap yet,” Mr. Woods said. “They know we’d like it, no confusion there.”
Although Canada may not be Google’s first priority when it comes to rolling out its most cutting-edge products, the country is playing an increasingly important role at the global tech giant.
Google’s chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette, is a Quebecker who was previously president of operations at Bell Canada Inc. And the former head of Google Canada, Chris O’Neill, recently returned to Mountain View, California to take over business operations for Google Glass. In another illustration of the country’s growing importance to Google, the company’s Canadian personnel has doubled in the past two and a half years.
“Google will put its bets and will put its heft behind where they see opportunity and growth,” said Sam Sebastian, managing director at Google Canada.
Mr. Sebastian, who previously led the company’s local and government markets in the United States, replaced Mr. O’Neill in May. His main focus to date has been on helping Google’s advertising customers “bring their brands to life,” particularly through YouTube.
“Here in Canada over the last six to 12 months we’ve seen an explosion of content on YouTube,” Mr. Sebastian said. “My goal has been to get our customers and agencies connected with that.”
That will continue to be a focus for Google Canada in 2015, as will helping businesses adapt to the explosive growth in mobile content.
Source:: National Post
