Google Tops Fortune’s List of Best Companies to Work For

Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For

Google is the best company to work for in 2012, according to Fortune’s yearly update to its “100 Best Companies to Work For” listing.

The Mountain View, CA search and advertising giant, which employs 18,500 people in the U.S., moved up three positions from last year’s Fortune list to take the top spot. “Everything was up at Google last year,” Fortune wrote of the company. “The reason? Employees rave about their mission, the culture, and the famous perks of the Plex: bocce courts, a bowling alley, eyebrow shaping (for a fee) in the New York office. Then there’s the food: some 25 cafés companywide, all gratis.” 

As reported by PCMag.com, Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page mentioned the ranking during the company’s earnings call Thursday. “People want to feel part of a family, even when they’re at work,” Page said. “We’ve taken the number one spot three times now, more than every other company. I want to thank everyone at Google for all their hard work, which has made this possible.”

Other technology companies making appearances in this year’s listing include Zappos.com (11), Intuit (19), Qualcomm (23), Salesforce.com (27), Adobe (41), Intel (46), Autodesk (52) Microsoft (76), Hitachi Data Systems (86), Cisco (90), and GoDaddy (93). 

Apple, which has received some recent criticism of its working environment in the run-up to the release Adam Lashinsky’s tell-all book, Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired — and Secretive — Company Really Works, did not make the top-100 list.