Yodel bears

Posted February 17th, 2009 at 5:09 pm by Eirik Refsdal, Yahoo! Search

 7 Comments / Filed in: Working at Yahoo!

One of the best kept Yahoo! secrets is our office at the North Pole — or at least really, really close to it. In the city of Trondheim, Norway, a group of 40 dedicated search engineers work day and night to develop one of our core technology platforms.

A huge advantage of having an office in such a cold and deserted corner of the world is, of course, that there is little else to do than go to work. The hazardous environment is, however, a big drawback — blizzards, temperatures well below even the lowest of comfort zones and, worst of all, the hungry polar bears (isbjørn) that sneak around town looking for food or a warm place to hide.

So while your biggest commuting worry is how heavy the traffic will be, these guys — wishing they had Kevlar coats and rifles on their scooters — have to ask themselves: “Will I even make it to work today?”

Could this be for real? Do these daredevils from Norway deserve high-risk pay and additional insurance packages, or are they just pulling our legs? See their photo evidence at Flickr and let us know what you think.

Eirik Refsdal
Engineer, Yahoo! Search

Tagged: Flickr, Working at Yahoo!

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7 Comments Add your own

GuillaumeB | February 17th, 2009 at 11:42 pm

Wow that would clearly freak me out!!! They definitely need a raise !!!! At least they deserve to use the new homepage at no.yahoo.com/

Marita Stok | February 18th, 2009 at 4:38 am

Did you also see the report on polar bears moving east to inland Sweden and Finland?

aladdinresortcasinolasvegas | February 18th, 2009 at 7:39 am

the bears are moving? omg

Didrik | February 18th, 2009 at 10:32 am

Now that Google is gone, this should wipe the rest of the “search sector” from Trd.

=bg= | February 18th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

Just grin and, uh, bear it, I guess.

luxorlasvegas | February 19th, 2009 at 8:49 am

so that’s the main office… cool, secret revealed

Martijn | March 4th, 2009 at 7:17 pm

Seeing this I would nearly apply for a job there. So no, it doesn’t really put me off.