Is Google+ a clear and present danger to the success of Facebook, or is there, to quote Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest, “room for it all as we mingle at the ball?” If you follow all the blocking of Google Chrome apps designed to scrape Facebook accounts in order to populate Google+ profiles, as well as reports of Facebook blocking Google+ ads, then the answer appears to be yes. Facebook recognizes the threat Google+ poses and is responding in kind.
However, then there are things like the following list posted by Craig Kanalley over at his Google+ account. Incidentally, if you follow the movers and shakers in your industry, provided it’s geek-related, Google+ is a great place to find news. Moving on, Kanalley, a senior editor at the Huffington Post, posted a list of all the Facebook employees who have a Google+ account.
Needless to say, it looks like everyone who works for Mark Zuckerberg has a Google+ account. Is this a case of sleeping with the enemy — doubtful — or is the Facebook crew merely acting as “secret shoppers,” while keeping tabs on the competition? First, the list in question, which reads like a who’s who of Facebook employees:
Founder/CEO
+Mark ZuckerbergExecutive Team
+Christopher Cox (VP, Product)
+Lori Goler (VP, Human Resources & Recruiting)
+Dan Rose (VP, Partnerships & Platform Marketing)
+Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer)
+Elliot Schrage (VP, Global Comm., Marketing & Public Policy)
+Mike Schroepfer (VP, Engineering)
+Bret Taylor (Chief Technology Officer)Directors
+Kate Aronowitz (Director of Design)
+Ethan Beard (Director of Facebook Developer Network)
+Peter Deng (Director of Product Management)
+David Fisch (Director of Business Development)
+Debbie Frost (Director of Comm./Public Affairs)
+Justin Osofsky (Director of Platform Partnerships)
+Blake Ross (Director of Product)
+Alex Schultz (Director of Growth)
+vaughan smith (Director of Corporate Development)Product
+Paul Adams (Product Manager)
+Eric Antonow (Product Marketing)
+Will Cathcart (Product Manager)
+luke delorme (Product Manager)
+Rohit Dhawan (Lead Product Manager, FB Pages)
+Naomi Gleit (VP, User Feedback)
+Adrian Graham (Product Manager, FB Questions)
+Cat Lee (Platform Product Marketing)
+sam lessin (Product Manager)
+David Recordon (Senior Open Programs Manager)Engineering
+Keith Adams (Software Engineer)
+Aditya Agarwal (Engineering Director)
+Arjun Banker (Software Engineer)
+Jing Chen (Software Engineer)
+Brent Goldman (Software Engineer)
+Benjamin Golub (Engineer, Platform)
+Adam Hupp (Software Engineer)
+Pedram Keyani (Engineer, Site Integrity)
+Tobie Langel (Software Engineer)
+Justin Mitchell (Engineer, FB Photos)
+Zach Rait (Engineer, Infrastructure)
+Arthur Rudolph (Software Engineer)
+Yariv Sadan (Engineer, Mobile)
+Luke Shepard (Engineering Manager)
+Mike Vernal (Engineer, Platform)Design
+Nathan Borror (Product Designer)
+Eric Fisher (Social Design Strategist)
+Rob Goodlatte (Product Designer)
+Drew Hamlin (Product Designer)
+Greg Hoy (Design Recruiter)
+Francis Luu (Product Designer)
+Adam Mosseri (Product Design Manager)Partner/Developer Relations
+Jeff Bowen (Platform Developer Relations)
+Jacqueline Chang (Strategic Partner Manager)
+Andy Katzman (Platform Partnerships)
+Vadim Lavrusik (Journalist Program Manager)
+andy mitchell (Strategic Media Partnerships)Mobile
+Erick Tseng (Head of Mobile Products)Research
+Pete Bratach (Technical Writer)
+Sean Bruich (Monetization Analytics)
+Cameron Marlow (Data Scientist)Advertising/Marketing
+Kevin Colleran (Sales)
+Todd Miner (Head of Sales IT)
+eric toda (Ad Ops, Global Marketing Solutions)Recruiting
+Richard Cho (Recruiting Manager)Though not currently at Facebook, cofounders +Chris Hughes and +Eduardo Saverin also appear to be on G+.
It’s disappointing Saverin’s account has absolutely nothing on it, although, the settlement agreement reached between he and Zuckerberg would probably make his content relatively benign. That being said, it’s pretty apparent Saverin joined for joining Google+‘s sake, and has moved on to other items of interest.
So? Is this a case of collusion or a “keep you enemies closer” scenario? Obviously, the latter makes much more sense, because if there was a Facebook employee revolt, it’s doubtful Google+ would be ground zero. With that in mind, perhaps it’s a situation of “damn, Google+ really does cut down on the clutter, so I’m moving my day-to-day social networking over there.”