Earlier this year, we launched Google Play, a new way to ensure that your favorite music, books, movies, apps and games are easily accessible from the Web and any Android device. We asked Ellie Powers and Miles Barr, who work on Google Play, to share some insights on what they’re working on, a bit of their background, and what it is like working in our London office.
Ellie Powers: We’re responsible for the Android Developer Console, which is the nerve center for Google Play’s thousands of app developers. It allows Android app developers to upload, market and analyze their apps.
Miles Barr: The Android Developer Console is web-based, so we serve as the bridge between the Web and mobile devices. To date, it has been responsible for uploading over 450,000 apps to Google Play.
Ellie: We’ve got big plans to make Android app developers more successful; we’re working on new ways of bringing more great apps to Android’s millions of users worldwide. For example, we’re improving Android developer tools on mobile devices in the near future.
Miles: There is a lot of competition in the mobile app marketplace. To succeed, we have to keep offering market-leading tools to Android developers to help them create high-quality and high-revenue apps in a modern e-commerce ecosystem.
Miles: London is a hotspot for mobile startups and app development, so there are many companies in London that develop apps for Android. We can easily meet with them in person to get feedback on our products and future plans.
Ellie: We’re also a very internationally diverse team, so being in London is a good central location that is reflective of that diversity. We hail from 10 different countries on four different continents. The largest number of people from the same country is two!
Miles: Both UI and backend programming are important, as are analytics and programming best practices. Most of our programming is done in Java, but we also have pieces in C++. We use the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) for our UI, but are also looking for people with a strong background in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. And since we work a lot with teams in Mountain View, communication and friendliness are also big plusses.
Ellie: We pride ourselves on having a lot of fun together - from hosting team off-sites like a ski trip to Austria, to eating popcorn during weekly team meetings. And London has a great pub culture, which our team takes full advantage of to celebrate product launches and get to know new team members.
Miles: We’ve even honored London’s pubs with the code name of our big new project!
