“A Weekend at the Pandiaplex” PLUS this week’s most important headlines.

This weekend we will give our readers a fascinating glimpse into the hidden world of the Pandia headquarters.

The Pandaplex is slightly smaller than the Googleplex (90 m² on one floor as opposed to 47,038 m² for the Google core buildings).

Still, Pandia puts an equal emphasis on the work environment of the enterprise. As a matter of fact, in some respects we would say that Pandia has a much more healthy approach to work satisfaction than Google.

The Pandia cat only policy

Firstly, Google allows only dogs on campus, not cats.

Anybody with any insight into the health aspects of human/animal relationships know that nothing beats having a purring cat in your lap. You may not get that much work done, but life is so much more than increasing productivity. Hence: No dogs, cats only!

(And yes, that’s Basilikum AKA Basil on the right).

Saving energy

Google is installing a series of solar panels, capable of producing 1.6 megawatts of electricity.

Given the current climate in Oslo, that would not make much sense. However, Pandia has decided not to install any elevators in the Pandiaplex, meaning that we will have to walk to the second floor several times every day. This has the added benefit that we do not have to get a gym, reducing environmental and psychological stress.

All work and no play

Google puts a lot of emphasis on local services, like cafeterias, gyms, hairdressers, massage parlours and the like.

Here at Pandia we would rather like to give to our local community.

You do not need your own cafeteria, if there is only a four minutes walk to our local harbor side cafe.

Here is a picture of CEO Susanne reading search engine related material at Kaffebrenneriet at Aker Brygge in Oslo.

All right, all right, Google does have a dinosaur. We tried, but we couldn’t get it in through the doorway.

Still, we do have Bamse (to the left). He is equally ferocious and has the advantage of not being extinct.

The week in review

Enough about the Pandiaplex. What has been going on this week?

At Pandia we have interview the people over at the new search engine Hakia, we have told you about Google’s Virtual Telescope, Microsoft’s Tafiti search engine and about Google Maps and the Faeroe Islands (don’t ask!).

We were not able to cover the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, but you will find overviews of online reports at Search Engine Roundtable, Unofficial SEO and the Online Marketing Blog.

And here are some of the topics the rest of the search engine world has been talking about:

Google Phone: Revolutionary Or Evolutionary?
Some claim that the Google phone, or Gphone, will be released within two weeks in India. (Information Week Aug 24 2007)

Our New Webmaster Portal and an Invitation to the Private Beta
Webmaster Portal will be a single, friendly place to find all tools and information relating to Live Search SEO. (Live Search's Blog Aug 22 2007)

Acoonna Withdraws from IPO Filing: Loses on 2nd Attempt
Accoona, the search engine company, has lost on its second attempt to go public. (Mashable Aug 24 2007)

Searcharazzi: Salacious Wiki Edits to FAST Search & Transfer
Is the Norwegian search company trying to disguise the facts? (Search Engine Land Aug 24 2007)

Microsoft Beta Testing Live Search Webmaster Portal
And yes, webmasters will be able to check their backlinks in LiveSearch again! (Search Engine Journal Aug 24 2007)

Yahoo! Weather Report — Major Crawl Improvements
The new crawler continues to improve comprehensiveness and freshness of coverage while also enhancing crawl efficiency (Yahoo! Search Blog Aug 22 2007)

YouTube Users Rail Against In-Video Ads
YouTube has only been running in-video ads for a couple of days (Google Watch Aug 23 2007)

Remove Faces From Google Street View
You can ask Google to remove recognizable faces (Google Blogoscoped Aug 24 2007)

How to Defend your Website from the Google Duplicate Proxy Exploit
If someone copies one of your pages and manages to convince Google that their page is the original, your page will get tossed into the supplemental index (Site Pro News Aug 24 2007)

Google Sky Released
Google Earth now comes with sky imagery, or a “virtual telescope” (Google Blogoscoped Aug 22 2007)

The Paid Links Debate Rages On - SES San Jose 2007
One of the most talked-about, anticipated and dramatic sessions of the SES San Jose conference (SEOMoz Aug 21 2007)

Yahoo Site Explorer Adds Dynamic URL Rewriting Tool
A new feature that enables webmasters to inform Yahoo about dynamic URLs that may be create duplicate content. (Search Engine Land Aug 21 2007)

Mike Grehan interviews Ralph Tegtmeier on black hat SEO and the Black Mask Project
"If you can register a domain and get it live for $20 and in two weeks that domain has made $40, it doesn't matter if it gets burned in the index." (ClickZ Aug 20 2207)

Rumor: Was the Gdrive Release Canceled?
Platypus was intended for public release as much as a year ago - some say (Blogoscoped Aug 19 2007)

Finally! The Sandbox Debate is DEAD and the SEO Guru Killed it.
Massa's new domain is definitely out of the Sandbox (Ask the SEO Guru Aug 19 2007)

Google Has No Plans to Develop "Old Marratech"
At least we can assume that any video conferencing technology will be launched using the Google brand. (Andy Beal Aug 19 2007)

Experts claim that Google Gadgets can be misused
He said that the domain used to host these gadgets can be used to get around antiphishing filters. (TechWhack Aug 18 2007)

American Airlines Sues Google Over Search Words
American Airlines, the world's largest airline, has sued Google Incorporated for selling search words involving its name. (Neowin Aug 19 2007)

Ask.com on the Upswing
Ask shows the biggest gain in the latest American Consumer Satisfaction Index (New York Times via SE Land Aug 14 2007)