Google’s known as the company with a “different” kind of corporate culture.  Call Ooga Labs “really different,” then - these guys play Calvinball, a game in which “the only permanent rule . . . is that you can’t play it the same way twice.”  Between matches, Ooga’s employees apparently work on stuff like search engines and social networks.

The company was profiled in a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, and they’re doing some interesting things (aside from embracing Calvinball, that is).  One project, dubbed GoodTree, is a center for Web, image, and news searches, among other things, and has the motto “Internet for Good” beneath its logo.

Remind you of those folks in Mountain View?

It should - in an older article SFC piece, James Currier, Ooga’s founder, said  “Google is sucking the oxygen out of the system” in reference to the company’s practice of hiring the best people available.  He then added, “You can’t blame them, though.  If I were them, I’d be doing the same thing.”

As for what Currier’s doing now, well . . . it’s hard to say.  Jessica Guyn states that Ooga, which is a “13-employee San Francisco startup,” “currently has five stealth projects under development.”

There’s no breaking news here in respect to those - sorry if you’ve read this far looking for some - but Ooga Labs is definitely a company that bears watching.  As do, by the way, all of the old Calvin and Hobbes comics.

Tags: Ooga Labs, GoodTree, Google