Well, perhaps really, the new (anti) portal. Paul posts a portion of an email from an ex-Googler who left for Facebook.
A couple of months ago, after three years as a Google product manager, I decided to leave for Facebook. I am writing this note to spread Good News to all the friends I haven’t already overwhelmed with my enthusiasm: Facebook really is That company.
Which company? That one. That company that shows up once in a very long while — the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago. That company where large numbers of stunningly-brilliant people congregate and feed off each other’s genius. That company that’s doing with 60 engineers what teams of 600 can’t pull off. That company that’s on the cusp of Changing The World, that’s still small enough where each employee has a huge impact on the organization, where you think about working now and again, and where you know you’ll kick yourself in three years if you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, even after someone had told you that it was rolling toward the promised land. That company where everyone seems to be having the time of their life.
I’m serious. I have drunk from the kool-aid, and it is delicious.
The fellow goes on to ask folks to join him at Facebook.
We’ve all been thinking about Facebook a lot lately, and many of us have been using it, as it’s impossible not to thanks to the onslaught of industry folk who are giving it a whirl and inviting you in. It’s a slick application and the open approach to plugins is brilliant in its simplicity. But the real question, if the future of the site is as a next generation “anti-portal” is to address the question of how to appropriately integrate the conversation of marketing into the site.
That’s a question I’ve thought about a lot, as those of you with patience for my ramblings know. I’m looking forward to using Facebook more, as I figure the more I use it, the more ideas I might have to share here.