Visit Facebook, Google and Apple? Inside the absurd new rush of tourism in Silicon Valley

For some, the reasons for the visits do not raise as many questions.

"Why go on Google? Because it's my life I use Google every day, so I'm curious to see where all the creations come from, "said Clement Poidatz, a resident of Milan, standing in front of the Facebook panel.

He and a friend from Spain had come on Facebook "just to say we were here. Once in our life we ​​will be here, so why not? As a fan of the Netflix mafia drama SuburraHe also planned to visit the video streaming company, joking that he wanted to ask questions about the new season.

Even after the scandals that Facebook has known, this year and further into the past, visitors are still flocking. Celebrity is a celebrity. Kanako Yanai had come from Tokyo to see Facebook because she had watched The social network three years ago.

For young tourists like Rahul, Silicon Valley also presents a vision of the future. Students of a computer graphics class at Pittsburg High School, one hour north of Silicon Valley, came to Google after visiting the Computer History Museum. Five girls were sitting in the Android sculpture garden, populated with statues of the logo of the operating system transfigured into various desserts.

Carsheala Bankston, an elder, said, "The museum made me feel like a real computer scientist, as if I really knew what I was doing … You see computers from the very beginning, and when you get to the modern part, like, "Oh that's what I do in class." "

Dayahna Celestine, also an elder, added, "There was a sign for Boolean expressions and we do it in class. We are really doing what we have come to see. "

They had just left the Google Visitor Center, where tourists can buy t-shirts, sweatshirts, stuffed animals androids worth $ 37 and some Google products like Chromecast or a Nest Thermostat . The conversion of office space into a store is not quite complete; An artist was painting a mural on a wall the day I arrived. Visitors can also visit their hometowns on a large Google Earth screen.

In comparison with the museum, the tech giant had disappointed the girls.

"I was waiting to see Google's phones and Chromebooks, but it was only Google's water bottles. Then there is this park without slides or swings, "said Celestine, showing the Android sculptures.

To make matters worse, the de facto student travel guide saved them. (Google does not offer official visits, so the guide would have been an employee.)

But before I could ask them more, our interview was interrupted by the appearance of one of their classmates on a Google bike, painted the distinctive tricolor Google flag and allows anyone to get on the campus of the company. The girls rushed to grab their own bikes and climbed in circles in the parking nearby.

Other Toronto tourists from the reception center had the same debate as Rahul and Rohan on Facebook.

"I do not think you can really get to know the brand better here. Google is a search engine that sells phones, etc., said George Springer, a teenager who came with his family.

He felt the same about Facebook, which the family had visited earlier in the day: "The other is a social media company; you do not have to go to the physical site to find out everything. Wherever you go online, it's the same thing. "

His mother Dora replied, "But that's the headquarters. That's where everything comes from. That's why we are here.

George's father, Peter, bluntly said, "You do not have to see where this was made. It's not like we're talking about a car, where you can visit the factory. This is another industrial area. Any city has an industrial manufacturing area … I prefer to drive in the hills. You can see concrete and steel anywhere.

But Dora had the last word: "We are on the other side of the country from Toronto. We already have everything google. Our whole life is Google. Let's take a trip down and see where it all goes. Maybe it's just a wall, just another brick and mortar building, maybe there's more! We do not know. We have never been here! It's an adventure! "

Google's physical spaces are more like digital spaces than Peter Singer can think of. The company searches people's bodies for data, as well as for their online actions. Two Velodyne LIDAR sensors, of the type used to guide autonomous cars, turn in the souvenir shop above the heads of visitors. Google seems to follow the movements of tourists during their purchases. The company has not responded to the request for comments on the use of these data.

The girls of Pittsburg High were not the only ones to be disappointed by their visit.

eBay, one of Silicon Valley's oldest successes, seems confused as to what it wants to do with visitors. When I told a security guard that I was a journalist and I had asked him about tourists on eBay, he stated that the cafe was open to the public and that vendors would sometimes arrive . It was the same for the curious tourist, although none of them seemed to be there that day. He got angry when I asked him his name for this story and he did not know I was a journalist. I left the hall.

On the patio of the cafe, a second security officer approached me and asked me to leave, claiming that the company "only allowed access to employees". eBay and the people who had appointments. A third security guard driving this time a SUV with the siren turned on followed me out of the parking lot, pointing his phone camera at my car.

eBay has not responded to the request for clarification of the lobby policy.

Debates about seeing technology companies in person are visibly absent at Apple's visitor center, a soft bungalow whose roof seems supported by columns of air.

On a rainy Sunday in March, families paraded through the glass, wood, capsules, purchase devices, coffee and Apple-Park t-shirts at $ 40. Shirts, like the iPhone, are made in China.

"I thought we could have gone inside the ring. Since we are here, we were hoping to see everything, but the iPad was cool, "said Cindy Lam, a student at Boston University in Hong Kong.

She said seeing the office, even from afar, made her want to work at Apple. She bought a t-shirt.

"I am an Apple user and I love their products, but now I love them even more," she said.

Mark Badella left Sacramento by car for two and a half hours to allow his three-year-old son Leon to play at the visitor center.

"[Leon] like to go to Apple stores. He always wants to go, "said Mark. "He is familiar with the iPhone. Even a 3 year old can use the iPhone with a sweeping gesture. Maybe it's making a connection between that and the real world. "

The iPhone seems to have influenced the way Leon interacts with the world. He wants each screen to respond to his touch. While we were talking, he tried to glide on a giant screen that Apple uses to do demonstrations. It was not a touch screen.

Visitors are not allowed to enter the Apple Park, designed by star architect Norman Norman, and are therefore offered a substitute: a model of the big ring that, seen through an iPad, comes to life in reality increased. Looking from the roof terrace, the iconic ring is obscured behind a tree stand. Roughly 80 percent office grounds are professionally landscaped. The placement of this grove blocking the gawkers could be an accident; it could be that no. While the company declined to comment, Apple hired a tree specialist for its new campus, which itself met with Steve Jobs, a CEO known for his thoroughness.