Facebook Friends

A few weeks ago, during our 8-day jaunt through Norcal, Amos and I had the pleasure of touring the Facebook facilities. Now just a note, the Facebook offices are not generally open to the public, but if you know someone then it is pretty simple to get a little lunch time tour. Luckily, a friend of mine's dad works there and hooked us up! (Thanks Petra and Terry).

Our tour began in the lobby of one of the buildings, of which there are many. When you go in there is a desk with iPads. You sign in, telling them who you are and who you are there to see, and it is connected directly to the literal social network! They also have screens all over the campus, also hooked up to Facebook, where you can search for employees to see where on campus they are located. Talk about linked-in! Once we met with Terry, he took us to eat in one of the multiple cafeteria-style eateries. I know the word "cafeteria" has some nasty connotations, but those do not apply to the Facebook cafe's. There are 2 general ones, one BBQ eatery, one Pizza eatery, and lots of snack stations and grocery-store-style fridges full of beverages (Vitamin Water, iced teas, Smart Water, you name it) throughout the other buildings.
After eating delicious food, we walked around the rest of the campus. They call these places "campuses" because they consist of lots of different buildings with people doing various types of things. The name is pretty accurate at Facebook. There are lots of fresh-out-of-college programmers and engineers riding bikes (provided by Facebook) around the facilities, hanging out, inviting friends to lunch, etc. They even have intramural sports! There are lots of murals and art drawn on the walls. All of the buildings are very industrial; few walls, concrete floors, and work stations are just set up at communal tables. There are no cubicles and I think that is just lovely. A photo-op and signing of the famous "Facebook Wall", a look into a few programming offices (they call themselves the "Hackers"), a stop by a snack station for complimentary candy, and that was pretty much it.

This post ended up being longer than I anticipated, so look out for the Google post next!