Sandberg Departs Google For FaceBook
by
on March 04, 2008,
While Microsoft has been dogging Yahoo and Google keeps a close eye on the proceedings, FaceBook has been quietly continuing to build its empire online presence. Earlier this week it announced its new German site. now it is releasing the news that it has snagged one of Google's executive staff.
Sheryl Sandberg has been Google's Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations for the past six years. In her new role with FaceBook she will be in charge of marketing, human resources, business development and other day to day business operations. Prior to working with Google she held a post as the US Treasury Secretary's chief of staff.
With the introduction of FaceBook sites in multiple countries around the world and the addition of Sandberg, FaceBook's global business strategy has never been more clear. The company has a sweeping mission statement of having “everyone connected”, and it seems they aim to make it come true in the most literal sense.
Having everyone connected has been on the tip of everyone's tongue this week. FaceBook has not yet introduced a true mobile application, and it seems Yahoo may have beaten them to the punch with their ultra invasive reality mining mobile program m.mybloglog.com. My guess is FaceBook won't we far behind in bringing its connected philosophy to the web, and Sandberg is there to help them do just those types of things.
One thing Sandberg is expected to do is take the college party atmosphere of FaceBook and give it a head for business. Investors love the social network, but they often come under fire for the seat-of-the-pants way the company continues to be run. Sandberg should be able to bring order to the young company, and that order should help them find staying power in a fickle web business world.
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Maryann Jensen
Oliver
Hank
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
Can it really be called an “empire” if it doesn’t have a business plan, revenue model, or path to profitability?
This is the smartest move Facebook has ever made. Let’s just hope that Zuckerberg lets her run the ship while he just keeps his title.
As for the MBL app, you can bet I’ll have that sucker running at Web 2.0 Expo. Come find me, people.
There’s nothing I put out in a stream that I deem private. It’s about as invasive really as Spokeo. And I’m completely fascinated by it. When I was still a programmer, I was fortunate to work with some really intelligent folks, most of whom came from an embedded systems background. One of them was involved in the spec for Bluetooth and what MBL is doing is something that he was talking about doing 10 years ago and I remember just staring and blinking and thinking “What is he TALKING about?” Sometimes cool trumps creepy.
*Backs away slowly from the mobile MBL enthusiasm*