The company, which has been active in Israel since 2002, said the opening of the office would enable the company to expand its services, providing Israeli internet surfers, advertisers and partners with a search tool and advertising services via its search engine.
According to Globes, Meir Brand has been hired as Google’s Israel country manager, and the company’s first employee in Israel.
Brand previously worked in Microsoft Israel’s marketing department as the manager of the small business sector. He also worked for ICQ, for Internet search company Excite, and for Booz, Allen & Hamilton.
The company plans to build a content-rich portal at Google.co.il similar to local sites in other countries. It is therefore seeking out Israeli advertisers. The current website is only a search engine and does not provide e-mail, price comparisons, news links, or local information, like Google.com does.
The company plans on initially hiring employees with advertising connections to Israeli companies and will continue to hire and expand from there.