Google Loses Adam Bosworth
Adam Bosworth has left Google, leaving the company without one of its brightest architects and costing them the leadership behing Google Health. Google confirmed to Search Engine Land that Bosworth had left the company after three years, two months, and that Marissa Mayer would be taking over Google Health until a replacement could be determined.
Bosworth was a great hire for Google. Google hired him in July 2004 from BEA System. Previously, he had worked for Microsoft, designing Microsoft Access and running the team that built Internet Explorer 4’s HTML engine. At Borland, Bosworth developed the Quattro spreadsheet application. Bosworth is one the pioneers of XML, and you could even say that he is responsible for a little thing called AJAX.
For two years, we’ve been hearing about Google Health, which means it is likely the project he was hired for, or at least the one he’d been dedicating a lot of this time to. Early last year, rumors started runing around about Health, and up the launch of Google Co-Op, it seemed like Health was getting closer to release. Then, Base launched with some health features, and with the exception of some screenshots last month, no news at all.
In a purely speculative vein, I’d say that Bosworth seems like the type of guy who doesn’t do anything unless it’s something really big and amazing. Google Health was probably his baby, his way at adding another huge creation to an amazing career, and I’d bet he quit the company because he was sick of delays, sick of the company changing directions on him, sick of not being able to ship.
Adam Bosworth was able to deal with Microsoft and ship Access and IE4. He was able to deal at Borland and ship Quattro. Bosworth was able to ship at every company he worked at and produce hit products and market changers. But not at Google. Who’s fault do you think that is?
Here are some posts from the past about Google Health:
Adam Bosworth Working On Google Health - March 21, 2006
Google Health Expected Next Week - May 4, 2006
Google Health Link Redirects - May 5, 2006
Google Press Day 2006 (Google Co-Op unveiled instead) - May 10, 2006
Google Health Scrapbook? - July 7, 2006
First Google Health Screenshots Released - August 15, 2007
There’s also this little incident, where Bosworth and MSN’s Dare Obasanjo in a bit of a tête à tête:
Whoa! It’s On! - December 12, 2004
Google vs. Microsoft: Flame War! - January 2, 2005
