Google Eyes Cambridge Digs

Real estate sources tell The Boston Herald that the Web giant is snarfing around for 100,000 to 200,000 square feet of office space, preferably near Harvard and/or MIT.

Per usual, Google didn't comment to the Herald other than to say that the area is important to the company.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant is famous, or infamous, for using hardball tactics to wring tax and other concessions out of localities where it wants to plop its Googleplexes.

North Carolina found that out the hard way. There, Google apparently pushed legislators to grant it sweetheart deals -- as in relief from such niggling things as real estate taxes and sales tax on electricity.

Areas like western North Carolina, hit hard by downturns in the textile and furniture industries, are desperate for jobs. Not for nothing, but the Boston area is likewise hurting with high-tech folks leaving the state in search of employment.

We'll have to see what kind of deal Google cuts here.