I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Google in Dec 2011
Interview
There was an initial phone screen to cover fit and possible openings. This was cultural and focused on achievements as well as communication skills. Then there was a long gap to schedule an in person technical round. This consisted of a few engineers and was very technical. There was no strong communication of expectations of the role and the title and many groups spoke. Another round of interviews happened two months later and it was the same process with vague communication of possible roles.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you design a high-write, high-read database.
The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Google in Aug 2011
Interview
Be prepared to dust off college books and try to remember every algorithms/codes that your learned in the past years. Phone interview is a hit/miss on one technical question. As for onsite, each interviewers might have a complete 180 degree focus from others. It is difficult for those who have worked on a specific field for a long time unless they have plenty of time to review.