It will be like they never left the Googleplex in Silicon Valley if this Washington, D.C. invasion of execs from the search giant keeps up.<\/p>\n
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The fourth new geek in town is Sumit Agarwal (pictured here), who was head of Google’s mobile product management, to become the deputy assistant secretary of defense for outreach and social media in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense. <\/p>\n
Phew!<\/em> But what’s that? Poking with M-16s? The Berlin Wall? Tweeting troop movements?<\/p>\n In any case, it’s interesting to see so many key appointments in the tech arena going to one company, especially one so immersed now in national and international policy issues.<\/p>\n And especially since Google (GOOG) is also spending so much money in D.C. on lobbying recently.<\/p>\n As I reported recently<\/a>:<\/p>\n According to the most recent public reports filed by Google with the Senate on its lobbying spending there, the search giant has significantly increased its outlay in 2009 from the previous two years.<\/p>\n In 2007, Google spent a total of $1.52 million, which rose to $2.84 million in 2008.<\/p>\n And the 2009 total? Just over $4 million, according to the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database.<\/p>\n That\u2019s probably no surprise given the ever-growing range of issues of concern to U.S. regulators due to Google’s increasing number of deals and because of many new and often controversial initiatives the company is forging forward with.<\/p>\n From pushing for approval of its DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 to its failed attempt to strike a search and online partnership with Yahoo (YHOO) in 2008 to last year\u2019s wrangling with book publishers to 2010\u2019s expected tussle over its $750 million purchase of mobile advertising start-up AdMob, Google\u2019s presence in D.C. is only going to rise as its ambitions expand.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That’s still $2.7 million less than archrival Microsoft (MSFT) spent in 2009, but Google has been gaining on the software giant in a very short time.<\/p>\n In any case, these are still former<\/em> Googlers, who might or might not return to the mother ship at the end of their tenure.<\/p>\n But, for those keeping track, Agarwal will join:<\/p>\n *<\/strong> Former business development and also product exec Katie Jacobs Stanton, who was the Obama administration’s director of citizen participation and now works in the State Department.<\/p>\n *<\/strong> Google’s top policy wonk Andrew McLaughlin, who serves as deputy chief technology officer.<\/p>\n *<\/strong> And Sonal Shah, who worked at Google.org, who is director of the White House’s new Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.<\/p>\n Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n