No cash bonus, Santa comes with G1 for Google staff

LONDON/NEW YORK: In these times of credit crisis, Santa Claus is ringing in gifts for employees at Google, with the search engine giant doling out the G1 - an iPhone version from its own stable - instead of Christmas cash bonus.

Instead of the USD 1,000 pay cheque as bonus, Google is giving a version of its G1, the recently released mobile phone, to its employees.

"The cold wind of the downturn that has been blowing though Silicon Valley finally reached the doors of the world's biggest internet search engine yesterday when Google cancelled its staff Christmas cash bonus," The Times has reported.

According to the daily, this year, instead of the usual USD 1,000 gift to plump up the festive pay cheque, the search engine major is giving its staff a version of the G1.

"The holiday bonus is a Google tradition - it is a great way to thank everyone for their hard work. In the past, we have done this in cash. This year, we have decided to give Googlers a different kind of present - a Dream phone," the newspaper said quoting an internal e-mail.

The Times noted that the customised G1 devices would be given to permanent Google employees in the United States, Western and Central Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Japan, covering about 85 per cent of its 20,123 global staff.

"However, the e-mail explains that for legal reasons the G1 cannot be shipped to other parts of the world, so Googlers elsewhere will receive USD 400 instead," the report said.

The G1 runs on Android, a mobile operating system developed by Google, and the mobile phone was launched in October.

"The e-mail calls on 'Googlers', as (the) staff are called, to 'dogfood' the phone - an industry term meaning to test it in-house," the report added.

Pointing out that the denial of the cash bonus is not the first blow for the Google staff, the daily said that the number of restaurants on its campus open in the evening has already been reduced.

"Google's fellow residents of Silicon Valley have been badly hit by the credit crunch. With consumer spending down, so, too, are sales of gadgets. And, with the cost of credit so high, companies are cutting back as far as they can on IT spending," it noted.

But Google is a long way from being in trouble, the report said, adding that it has had a turnover more than USD 21 billion (13.6 billion pounds) in 2008.

"However, quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, which hit 14 per cent last year, was only 3 per cent in the three months till September 30, reflecting the slowing growth rate of internet advertising," it added.