To chase and catch the elusive goddess, Innovation, and fend off clever rivals, Google means to hire 6,200 people this year, which would represent roughly another 25% increase in its workforce after last year's, more than it ever has before.

Where it's going to hire these people is unclear other than "across the board and around the globe."

Google's still-CEO-for-the-moment Eric Schmidt said Tuesday in a speech that the company will hire ~1,000 people in Europe.

The company gets something like a million applications a year but promising pre-IPO start-ups like Facebook have proven good at raiding established Google folk.

Wall Street apparently wishes Google would be more circumspect in its spending. It recently gave all its staff a loyalty-buying 10% raise.