InsideGoogle

Jason Shellen Says Goodbye To Google

Jason Shellen, one of the Blogger six who came over to Google four and a half years ago, has left the company. Jason announced the move on his blog, giving the whole story of how he joined Pyra Labs as an unpaid consultant because he really liked the company, and was working hard there three years later when they were the first company Google acquired along with its staff.

Jason worked hard on Blogger for years, especially after Blogger’s founder, Evan Williams, left to start Odeo, and eventually, Twitter. Jason later came into his own, developing an outright hit in Google Reader, the most popular RSS reader on the web today. With his pedigree, he’ll probably be able to get good funding for a startup, which seems like his plan after some well-deserved time off.

Congratulations, Jason, on making the big move! I don’t know if he got a bunch of Google stock from the Blogger acquisition, and he certainly deserved some sort of bonus or Founder’s Award for Google Reader, but even if he’s not stinkin’ rich, I’m just glad to see him moving on because he’s “got that entrepreneurial/start-up bug”. I’m sure whatever comes next, it’ll be real exciting to try out. Good luck in the future, Jason, you certainly deserve it.

Jason published this infographic with his announcement; click it to see some notes at Flickr:

Most interesting is the note over the “acquisitions closed” box, which lists Picasa, Dodgeball, MeasureMap, and Feedburner. Now, we know Google acquired dozens of companies the last 4.5 years, so why is Jason listing those specifically? Is it possible he was instrumental in closing the acquisitions, and is thus listing personal accomplishments? That’s some good work!

Although I’d like to know why Dodgeball was acquired, and whatever happened to it after all this time. Maybe Jason can answer that questions someday.

July 12th, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Culture, Blogger, Services, General | one comment