Google Maps co-founder, Lars Rasmussen, has been snapped up by Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg personally poached the Google employee with what Rasmussen says was a “compelling personal pitch”. Based on Zuckerberg’s public appearances we find that one hard to picture! Rasmussen is just the latest in a string of Google guys lured over to Facebook…
Rasmussen told Aussie paper The Age that Facebook is “a one-in-a-decade type of company” and that encouraged him to end his six-year stint at Google. Rasmussen who is currently based at Google’s Sydney offices will now move Facebook’s Silicon Valley HQ. He helped create Google Maps with his brother.
Facebook confirmed that it has snapped up the Google Maps brainiac saying it’s “thrilled he will be party of [our] world-class engineering team…” There’s no clue about what Rasmussen will be building for Facebook but Facebook Places is one obvious area that could do with his magic touch.
Rasmussen’s move comes less than two months after Google executed his pet project, Google Wave. We wonder if putting that to an end was the last straw. It’ll also be interesting to see whether he can bring some of those productivity creating ideas for Facebook Docs.
