New York, April 4 (AP): This was one search you could not just Google.

An employee’s metre-long python went missing over the weekend in Google’s sprawling Manhattan office, sending search teams on an all-out snake hunt. The searchers finally found the serpent,known as Kaiser, on Monday night. “A snake was lost; it was not an April Fool’s joke. It was found last night,” Google spokeswoman Ellen West said yesterday. “The snake has left the building.”

She did not say where in the office Kaiser was found. But a contributor to Google’s official blog wrote that the staff was told the snake was found “relaxing behind a cabinet”. West confirmed the python belonged to a “Googler” and said the pet was now at its owner’s home.

The Google blog contributor, software engineer Dan Bentley, wrote that while some employees laughed about the situation, others stood away from walls and corners, and the bathrooms were less crowded. Dubbed the “Googleplex”, the Manhattan office has a relaxed workspace, with people sharing offices. It also offers free food, massage therapy, yoga classes and ski trips, according to Google’s jobs website. Company officials did not comment on a report that the search for the snake even included a missing snake flier. The website Valleywag (http://valleywag.com), a technology gossip website, posted a photo of the flier, complete with a photo of the python.