Search giant plans new operations centre for Google Maps developers at its 1,500-strong European headquarters

 

 Google has announced plans to hire 200 staff as it expands its European headquarters in Dublin.

It will open a new operations centre with developers working on some of its location-based products, including Maps and Places, but not Street View.

This is the first time Google's location-based products will have had Dublin developers working on them on such a scale. The European headquarters opened in 2004 and has more than 1,500 staff, making it the company's largest base outside the US.

David Martin, director of geo-operations for Google in Europe, said: "This operations centre will help to manage these data sources to give Google Maps users even more local information than before.

"With the increasing proliferation of smartphones and Google's Android platform for mobiles, more and more people are using local and mapping products on a daily basis.

"We want to ensure they have a great experience and that the information we give them is accurate, useful and up to date."

The new centre is expected to be fully operational before the end of the year.