London — When the Queen was crowned in 1952 computers were huge machines that functioned through large rolls of holed tape. Now more than five and half decades later the recently cyber attracted monarch “Queen Elizabeth II” is to pay a visit to the UK headquarters of search giant Google on 16 October, after reportedly becoming a big fan of the internet.
Pets running loose and pieces of candy scattered around the desk should be hard to find in Google’s UK headquarters next month. What’s more, any employee who is accustomed to wearing sandals will probably put on real shoes, while “creative” desks may get a thorough shine. And believe it or not, all of this will take place in preparation for a visit from the Queen.
While at the Google offices, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, the 82-year-old will meet staff at YouTube, owned by Google — that introduced the monarchy into the Web 2.0 era and help create the “Royal Channel,” along with some popular contributors from the video-sharing website where her Christmas message was broadcasted last year.
Queen Elizabeth II is said to have personally approved some of the footage that appears on the Royal Channel, where 15,000 people have watched a three-minute video on the blackcurrant harvest on the Sandringham Estate.
Hardly four years back when the Queen bestowed an honorary knighthood on Microsoft’s ex-chairman Bill Gates, she did not even possessed a computer, but now the Queen is fast on her way to becoming the world’s most famous cyber surfer, and reportedly communicate with her grandchildren including Princes William and Harry by email.
On HRH’s YouTube channel there are currently 50 videos featuring glimpses of the royal palaces and residences as well as visits from celebrities like Kylie Minogue to Buckingham palace. In addition a video from Prince Harry filmed while he was deployed to Afghanistan has been watched nearly 35,000 times.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “During her reign, the Queen has always kept up to date with the latest technology. The visit to Google is another example and shows how willing she is to embrace new technology and change.”
A Google spokesman said the company was very pleased that the Queen would be visiting the office, but was unable to go into detail citing security reasons. It is not yet clear whether Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page would be present for the Royal visit.
Google said it had invited the royal couple to tour the headquarters and meet staff after the success of the royal YouTube channel, which has more than 22,000 subscribers. In another nod to technology, the Queen’s recent Christmas broadcasts were released as podcasts.
The visit was organized at the behest of the Queen, who may be looking for insights and advice ahead of an anticipated revamp of the official Buckingham Palace website that will add more video content and improve navigation.
A Google spokesperson added: “Our engineers in London are leading the world on a range of mobile products, and our advertising team is working with British industry to help them grow their businesses online.”
“The Queen has a keen interest in technology and we are looking forward to showing our guests some of the exciting projects we are working on.”
Specific dates or even theoretical activity schedules have not been released, but do not be surprised if Eric Schmidt or Larry and Sergey fly overseas in order to greet Queen Elizabeth. It is not every day that a monarch shows interest in their search company.
Consecutively, this improvement might very well have Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer taking a few Tylenol!