Google in Pittsburgh Signals Tech Burst

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Expanding and Google is hiring. That's Hardly worth noting, but before you punch up your resume and start looking for an apartment in Boston or San Jose you Should Know That the expansion is in Pittsburgh. Mark Nootbaar reports.

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JEREMY Hobson: News this morning in the Wall Street Journal about some Skepticism over a Google take over of the online travel search engine ITA. ITA is Used by fare-compare sites like Kayak and Orbitz. Well, Competitors are Questioning Whether Google unfairly'd send web searchers Thurs ITS own travel services if the take over is Approved.

ITA The acquisition is part of a Larger picture at Google, a company That Continues Thurs expand and hire despite the tough economy. But before you punch up your resume and start looking for an apartment in Silicon Valley, You should know That the big part of Google's expansion is happening in Pittsburgh.

Mark Nootbaar of WDUQ has the story.

MARK NOOTBAAR: Google has More Than 100 Employees housed in a small building on the Carnegie Mellon University Campus. Its Bursting at the seams. So the company is about Thurs move two miles down the street. Google first partnered with Carnegie Mellon in 2006.

Rick McCullough is the vice president for research at the school.

Rick McCullough: A lot of Universities Thought That me were insane, To Have companies polluting the purity of the ivory tower and the Academics and That Turns Out to Be what We Believe is the future of research.

The engineering manager at Google's Pittsburgh office is Kamal Nigam. He relies a close hmmmm who knows Thurs Carnegie Mellon.

Kamal Nigam: Some of our software engineers teach classes at CMU, but we have come and Ken faculty Sabbatical do with us, but we have joint lecture series, while we hire interns.

Carnegie Mellon Continues Thurs Attract big names Thurs ITS campus Including Intel, Apple and Disney. McCullough says every company has Different Standards for sharing Intellectual Property, Funding and staff.

McCullough: We do not make all Partnerships with corporations, while we hand pick the ones me Want to partner with. The ones That are really, really Difficult to work with on intellectual property and legal issues, me walk away.

Carnegie Mellon is not alone in getting tech companies here. There's also the Pittsburgh Technology Council. It's leader is Audrey Russo, Ken says having "bigger names in town really helps Firms Attract mutch.

AUDREY RUSSO: It just changes "the plane of the conversation in terms of our credibility.

Quail Andy Russo has bought what is Trying Thurs sell. Quail Came to the states from the Isle of Man and Eventually settled in Pittsburgh, M they Launched an Internet solutions company. He sits in a Starbucks in a waterfront entertainment district That once hosted a two-mile long steel mill.

ANDY Quail: People are coming into town, they're like wow, Pittsburgh IS NOT like what I imagined it'd be. There's a Whole lot of tech in Pittsburgh, there are start-ups coming up all over the place, there are incubator labs, there's a wholesale lot of talent here in Pittsburgh.

Quail says Pittsburgh is Becoming the "Silicon valley of the East." So much so that they That's Launched the blog - "Techburgh.com."