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Updated Thursday, April 28, 2011 9:22 pm TWN, By Michael Liedtke, California, AP



	In this photo taken April 12, software engineer Ihab Awad works on his welding skills at a workshop space created for Google employees in Mountain View, California. The “Google Workshops” are the handiwork of company co-founder Larry Page, who took over as CEO on April 4. His top priority has been making the Internet giant work with the verve and creativity of a garage-bound entrepreneur.(AP) Enlarge Photo

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Google replants garage roots in workshops

MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Amid all the free food and other goodies that come with a job at Google Inc., there's one benefit a lot of employees don't even know about: a cluster of high-tech workshops that have become a tinkerer's paradise.

Workers escape from their computer screens and office chairs to weld, drill and saw on expensive machinery they won't find at Home Depot.

Besides building contraptions with a clear business purpose, Google employees use the shops for fun: They create elaborate holiday decorations, build cabinets for their homes and sometimes dream big like the engineers working on a pedal-powered airplane with a 100-foot wingspan.

The “Google Workshops” are the handiwork of Larry Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in a rented garage. Page authorized the workshops' opening in 2007 to try to reconnect the company with its roots.

Google, which has kept the workshops under wraps until Tuesday, gave The Associated Press an exclusive tour shortly after Page reclaimed his original job as CEO on April 4.

The workshops offer a peek into ways Page may try to make the Internet giant work with the verve and creativity of a garage-bound entrepreneur. Page believes the 13-year-old company needs to return to thinking and acting like a feisty startup as it faces competition from younger Internet stars such as Facebook, Twitter and Groupon.

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