GDI Infotech isn't a household name or multi-billion public company like Google.

But two stories - one about each company - in this week's Ann Arbor Business Review show how both have a significant presence on the local technology and jobs scene.

Google came to Ann Arbor in 2006 amid tremendous excitement that the search engine giant would open an AdWords facility here.

That it remains downtown is important to the city.

However, its hiring pace has slowed as part of the economic downtown affecting advertising on many fronts, and its hiring total now sits at about 25 percent of its original 1,000-person goal.

Still, that headcount is significant among non-Univeristy of Michigan employers downtown, and the people the number represents bring a lot of life and vitality to the city core.

At the same time, Google remains the type of “star power” name that can attract attention and interest from many other employers - even if its potential here has slowed and we won’t see an Ann Arbor version of a Googleplex soon.

Yet south of town sits GDI Infotech, which promised up to 121 jobs when it received a tax break early this year, three years after Google landed in town.

GDI, a data integration firm, just announced that it acquired another Ann Arbor company and established a government solutions division - resulting in anticipated hiring of up to 50 employees this year.

That number represents 41 percent of its goal - and if it meets that, GDI may well be on a pace to exceed the number it projected when applying for state tax breaks.

Google gets a lot of attention in Ann Arbor for what it is. That's fine.

But GDI also deserves praise and notice for what it's adding to the economic well-being of this region.