VentureBeat

Q&A with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, on hiring, growth, and its platform » VentureBeat said:

[...] has just hired a new COO, Sheryl Sandberg of Google (our coverage). So I talked with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg today, to get some more context on her [...]

Mantic Media » The Lacey Debacle Aside, What Did Zuck Actually Say? said:

[...] FB does need an experienced exec, who’s to say the Sheryl Sandburg isn’t now pulling the strings. Zuck is crucial to the company as a media darling a la young Steve Jobs and a pre-IPO Apple. [...]

Mark Zuckerberg: Learning how to dismantle an atomic bomb » VentureBeat said:

[...] This has led some to call for Facebook to bring in someone besides Zuckerberg to run the company. Our own Eric Eldon talked with Zuckerberg about this recently after the company brought on Sheryl Sandberg, previously of Google, to be the new chief operating officer (our coverage). [...]

Significant new features coming from Facebook: More privacy, and chat » VentureBeat said:

[...] of the ways we can extend out that information are important to us,” long-time executive and newly-named vice president of product management Mark Cohler says. “IM has been a pretty big project from [...]

YouTube business exec joins startup Cooliris » VentureBeat said:

[...] YouTube’s head of monetization Shashi Seth has left YouTube-owner Google to become the chief revenue officer at a Menlo Park, Calif. startup called Cooliris. Seth is just the latest in a series of Google executives to join the startup world, a group that also includes former Google vice president and current Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. [...]

Facebook’s Matt Cohler leaves for Benchmark Capital » VentureBeat said:

[...] raises questions about how the company’s culture is changing. As early employees leave and the company brings on new executives, is Facebook (perhaps inevitably) becoming more staid and [...]

Google… « TheBigMuff said:

[...] ^ ”“Another Googler goes to Facebook: Sheryl Sandburg becomes new COO”“. Venture Beat (2008-03-04). [...]

Another key early Facebook employee, Jeff Hammerbacher, is leaving the company » VentureBeat said:

[...] fuel to this little campfire of a rumor is that Sandberg joined in early March, Schrage joined in early May, D’Angelo left a week later in May and Cohler left in [...]

Facebook’s executive musical chairs: Ex-Googler Elliot Schrage to manage its developer platform » VentureBeat said:

[...] Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who only arrived in March herself from a senior business po…, must have seen his PR prowess on display, then, from the inside. And maybe Palihapitiya, whose title is Vice President of Product Marketing, has been doing exceptionally well with other aspects of his responsibilities, which until now have also included customer operations and marketing. There are most certainly more changes going on behind the scenes, and he may end up with other responsibilities to replace his platform ones. Still, to outsiders, Facebook executive positions are looking like a game of musical chairs. People sit down one month, the next month the music starts again, everyone gets up and walks around, a chair gets taken away and then everyone sits back down for the next month. The seemingly month-to-month reshuffling of executives and their responsibilities have recently included the departure of founding chief technology officer Adam D’Angelo, founding all-purpose business and product guy Matt Cohler, and yesterday, data analytics team creator Jeff Hammerbacher (who was lower on the totem pole, but a leader). But hold on, I’m being unfairly critical of these changes — especially of Schrage. Facebook’s platform, whether or not you care for it, has created hundreds of thousands of new applications, some of which are wildly popular with users — and legitimately so. Archrival MySpace, which earlier in its history tried to ban third parties who built simple, unsanctioned widgets for it, has launched its own developer platform. In fact, every major rival has launched a developer platform in the last year. That list also includes Google and its Orkut social network (big in Brazil!), hi5, Friendster, Bebo and and recently even country-specific social networks like Chinese sites 51.com and Xiaonei.com. So, Facebook’s platform has created a microeconomy that has both rightly and wrongly pushed the boundaries of what web services can do using social network user connections and data. The reaming the company has taken in the press has been myopic, when you consider what the platform has done to the entire industry, and when you consider Facebook’s ongoing efforts to evolve what the platform offers. In fact, the second annual “f8″ Facebook platform developer conference later this month will feature a new Facebook user profile design that intends to better reward good apps while punishing the most abusive ones. The conference will also feature a new iteration of an existing platform feature called “Facebook Connect” that lets third party developers access Facebook user data from their own web sites. Lastly, the reason I italicized “second annual,” above is because the platform as we know it today only launched a little over a year ago. It’s still a work in progress, it’s still constantly improving in order to make users happy. Schrage, the seasoned PR vet that he is, will now be in a position to highlight the best aspects of what the platform has already accomplished — and what it intends to accomplish in the future. An aggressive, public champion seems to be what the platform needs most right now. [...]