Google poaching Yahoo engineers in public

Mountain View’s largest ad network with a search engine attached is looking to hire more software experts. Specifically, Google wants to hire one or more “excellent Yahoo engineer(s) with solid experience in search.”

Normally, Silicon Valley companies hire recruiters to identify and solicit senior technical people. Google uses them, too.

But Google engineer Matt Cutts has a high profile among Internet engineers because of his role at Google in cracking down on search engine spam. So the minimal job description he posted to his site is being passed around by the kind of senior search experts who would hang up on a headhunter. The full text is:

“I was talking to an excellent new Googler that joined from Yahoo this week, and that reminded me that I meant to do this post a little while ago. So I’ll keep this post short and sweet: if you’re an excellent Yahoo engineer with solid experience in search, Google is hiring. If you want to apply for a Software Engineer (SWE) position in Mountain View, use this job page and the application will make it to the right recruiters. Thanks!”

One commenter on Cutts’ website raised an obvious corollary: What is Yahoo doing to poach Google engineers? Silicon Valley techies are notorious for job-hopping . Non-compete contracts can’t bind them. A year ago, California’s seven-person state Supreme Court ruled that “an employer cannot by contract restrain a former employee from engaging in his or her profession, trade or business.” The most they can do is forbid you to surf Cutts’ website on company time.