Meals of all kinds, painstakingly prepared by company chefs, are free at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., a modern corporate campus known as the Googleplex. Other amenities there include children's day care, doctors, dry cleaning, laundry, a gym, and basketball and volleyball courts. Maternity or paternity leave is 12 weeks at 75 percent of full pay. There is also up to $500 available for takeout meals for the entire family after a newborn arrives, courtesy of Google. Shuttle buses (with wireless Internet access for working while commuting) ferry employees to the Googleplex from throughout the Bay area.

And the big perk: the company's engineers are given 20 percent of their time to pursue their own ideas instead of company assignments.

The company is currently hiring about 10 people a day, adding to a workforce of more than 5,000. The essence of the Google pitch, said Shona L. Brown, vice president of operations, is: "Hey, come join us doing really exciting things. We're trying to change the world."

That prospect proved appealing to Paul Rademacher, 31, who came to Google in September from DreamWorks, where he worked on the software behind movies like "Shrek 2" and "Madagascar." Mr. Rademacher caught the attention of Google executives with a Web site he built on his own, www.housingmaps.com, which links Google's mapping software with property listings on Craigslist, the online bulletin board, to display houses and neighborhoods.

After talking to Google engineers and executives, Mr. Rademacher came away impressed that the company was a place that gave people "room to do great things." At Google, he is working on new products that remain secret.