In an upcoming issue, Fortune magazine places Google at the top of its list of best places to work.
Among the many reasons that people admire about working at Google are all its perks. Free gourmet meals, bonuses’ for purchasing a hybrid car, massages, car washes and oil changes for those who drive to work, laundry services, and on an on. Doesn’t take much to know that Google’s doing pretty well in the stock market and growing rapidly doing all it can to attract top talent.
If Google is going to continue to expand, it needs to grow its partner programs. The company appears to be going in this direction, with recent Google partner events, but there doesn’t seem to be an all-out, organized partner program at this time. I expect there will be one.
When I think about what a Google version of a Partner program might be like, I wonder if we’ll see a traditional partnerscape–or a Google permutation. Will we see Google providing perks to open source partners, for instance? Maybe health care or well-being services to open source developers? Maybe subsidized transportation or high-speed internet access for those who partner with Google? Or will Google go the more traditional, big company route and possibly charge its partners for access.