So much of the value created in Silicon Valley is in the ethereal realm of ideas: algorithms, applications, websites, and all manner of “intellectual property”. At times, it seems that the physical world is of little consequence; that imagination, ingenuity, caffeine-fueled keyboarding (and a fair bit of luck) are all that matter here. Indeed, when you look at most high tech companies, very little of their value is found in physical assets. What really matters is the people working there and what is in their heads.

So, it always comes as a surprise to me whenever the physical world asserts itself back into the Silicon Valley equation, as it has begun to once again, some six years after the Web 1.0 Bubble burst, taking with it the local commercial real estate market. Though many gleaming glass structures remain empty, for those within scooter distance of the Googleplex, things are feeling a bit frothy. To accommodate its continued growth, Google is buying up every decent property in its neighborhood (even including the building that we are in).

View from Plaxo: Some Valuable Silicon Valley Dirt

So, this post is to the forgotten part of Silicon Valley, the dirt beneath our feet. It keeps changing hands, as wave after wave of innovation sees the rise of one type of company – and the fall of another. When people visit or drive past Google today, I imagine that most assume the colorful, playful buildings were designed specifically for Larry, Sergey, and the other Googlenauts. But those who’ve been around for a while know that complex was built in a different time, for a different “hottest company in the Valley” – for Silicon Graphics in the heyday of the workstation market (in the early ‘90’s).

It will be interesting to watch the continued transformation around us. What I know for sure is that the amount of land is finite, and that the competition of ideas played out upon its surface is in a constant state of change.

-John McCrea, VP of Marketing

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