WASHINGTON — Google Inc. arrived here in 2005 like a newly elected congressman: eager to change the world but first needing a little help locating the restrooms.
After some initial wrong turns, the Internet giant now appears to be finding its way in Washington.
Google's expanding lobbying operation scored two significant victories last year: It convinced federal regulators to approve its $3.1-billion purchase of online ad company DoubleClick Inc., and to partially open new wireless airwaves so the company could more easily make its products available on them.
Though D.C. veterans say Google has a long way to go before its lobbying clout matches its market valuation, the company is no longer viewed as a wide-eyed Washington freshman.
"This is a company that understands what they've got to do, and they're in the process of doing it," said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank. "You can't just get by on good looks."
Google is making a major statement about its intention to be a player in the nation's capital. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt today plans to christen Google's new Washington offices: 27,000 square feet in one of the city's trendiest new environmentally conscious buildings.
Lobbyists for the Mountain View, Calif., company will work at the site, which is complete with standard Google perks such as free gourmet lunches, a vibrating massage chair and a game room stocked with an Xbox 360 and pingpong and Foosball tables. It's also a place to show off technology to policymakers on enough large plasma screens to fill a Circuit City showroom.
"We're creating a little microcosm of Google in downtown D.C.," said Alan Davidson, who heads the office as the company's senior policy counsel. "We are here to stay and to have a positive presence in Washington."
Establishing that presence has been Google's goal since the summer of 2005 when it hired Davidson, its first lobbyist, from the Center for Democracy and Technology. Google had learned the lesson of Microsoft Corp., which largely ignored Washington in the 1990s until it found itself facing antitrust charges.
With Google's stock price skyrocketing along with its importance to the Internet economy, many expected the company to build an influential lobbying operation at light speed. But even Google couldn't alter the basic physics of Washington politics: Gaining clout is a slow, painstaking process.
