Why Google guru quit to join Facebook

He has been hailed one of Google’s most influential product engineers designing everything from Google Maps to the now defunct Google Wave. But now Danish-born Rasmussen has become the third big name to leave Google in a week, joining Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube, and Omar Hamoui, the co-founder of mobile advertising platform AdMob.
 
Rasmussen has just spoken publicly for the first time about why he quit his job and joined the growing band of high profile Googlers who have switched allegiances to Facebook. And it all comes down to size, it seems that Google is now simply too big to get things done effectively.

The decision to move to Facebook comes less than two months after the Google said it would scrap Rasmussen's pet project, Google Wave, a venture that tried to redefine the tools for online communication and collaboration.

"We were not quite the success that Google was hoping for, and trying to persuade them not to pull the plug and ultimately failing was obviously a little stressful," Rassmusen said.

Wave was unveiled in May last year but despite some impressive features, it failed to gain traction. Once the novelty wore off, it began losing momentum and users.

"It wasn't something that I would like to bet my life on, but all that excitement we created when we first unveiled the project was based on something real," Rasmussen said. "It takes a while for something new and different to find its footing and I think Google was just not patient."

Facebook fascination

"It feels to me that Facebook may be a sort of once-in-a-decade type of company," Rasmussen told The Sydney Morning Herald, explaining how he decided to end his six-year tenure at Google after a "compelling personal pitch" from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"Obviously they've already changed the world and yet there seems to be so much more to be done there. And I think that it's the right place for me to be.

"I think if you were to ask me two or three years ago if Facebook was going to be this big, I wouldn't have picked it. And I have a great deal to learn there from Mark and his team," he said.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the appointment saying that the company was "thrilled [that Rasmussen will] be part of Facebook's world-class engineering team to help design transformative technologies".