The official Google Blog noted Friday that Google will be shutting down their Phoenix, Arizona office in November.

We opened our Phoenix office in 2006 and hoped that it would develop to support many of our internal engineering projects, the systems that make Google, well, Google. But we’ve found that despite everyone’s best efforts, the projects our engineers have been working on in Arizona have been, and remain, highly fragmented. So after a lot of soul searching we have decided to incorporate work on these projects into teams elsewhere at Google. We will therefore be closing our Arizona office on November 21, 2008.

Tirana Magazine adds that “The office opened in 2006 on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, just south of Phoenix.” and “The closure is the latest of several: the company announced plans in July to close offices in Denver and Dallas.”

Startup Meme, among others wishes the Phoenix Googlers well, but what really caught my eye was this wry I-told-you-so-ish comment from Daily Hoopla:

“Google made the decision to put their campus on the Arizona State University campus nearly two and half years ago.  …. Clearly, Google was in it for Google, not the university and not the city.  Ask yourself, have you seen Google at local technical events?  Have you seen them contribute anything beyond job solicitations?  Google while we love you, we are disappointed you didn’t make it work.  I think your approach here was all wrong.  The next time you come into a community remember you receive in accordance to what you give.”

I like his clarity, and his comment. Maybe a little bitterness, but it makes a lot of sense… if you’re trying to tap into a technical community, then you need to GIVE to that technical community!

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