I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Google (Zürich) in Apr 2011
Interview
One phone interview, 1 hour, algorithmic questions, using Google docs.
5 on-site interviews, all on the same day. Questions such as image quantization, skip lists, reordering a binary tree, implementing a reentrant lock with non-reentrant locks, scaling a system. All including whiteboard coding.
Travel costs were reimbursed. Overall a very interesting experience. The only negative was the long drawn out process (3 months).