Google Inc is all set to go on a hiring spree this year with the company planning to add more than 6000 people around the globe in one of the "biggest" workforce expansions in company history.

In a blog post today, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research Alan Eustace said Google was "looking for top talent?across the board and around the globe."

The company had added more than 4,500 workers in 2010 primarily in engineering and sales departments.

The workforce expansion set for 2011 and said to he the "biggest hiring year in company history", will be more than the 6,100 workers Google had hired in 2007.

Google plans to hire more than 1,000 workers in Europe alone this year.

The company said it will hire "as many smart, creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science: like building a web-based operating system from scratch, instantly searching an index of more than 100 million gigabytes and even developing cars that drive themselves."

Eustace said the hiring comes when not just the company's products but also the company "grew" in 2010.

Google's operating system Android now runs on over 100 devices with more than 300,000 activations each day, while Chrome has at least 120 million active users, Eustace added.

California-based Google has been trying to keep its employees who are being lured by rivals companies like Facebook and Apple.

Last year, Google announced a 10 per cent raise for all its employees.

Facebook, which has been giving stiff competition to Google, has about 200 ex-Google workers in its roughly 2,000 workforce.
Google had last week announced major changes in its top management positions with company co-founder Larry Page set to take over as CEO in April from current chief executive Eric Schmidt. As on December 31, 2010 Google had a total workforce of 24,400.