Google (NASD: GOOG) announced on Tuesday that it plans to hire more than 6,200 new employees in 2011, making it the company's largest year of expansion ever.

Google added over 4,500 new employees in 2010, growing the company by 23%; its largest hiring year prior to 2011 was 2007, when it added 6,000 employees.

"At this stage, the number of opportunities just vastly exceed the number of people we have at the company," Alan Eustace, Google's senior vice president of engineering and research, told the Associated Press.

"The opportunities are so big this year that for us to maximize them we are going to have to work quicker and we are going to have to make decisions faster."

Google would not comment for AP on how many of its new hires would be in the U.S.