Facebook has just hired Greg Badros, a Google Senior Director of Engineering, we’ve learned. Badros joined Google in early 2003 and has worked his way up the chain since then. At Facebook, his official title will be Director of Engineering.
At Google, Badros was in charge of the AdSense engineering team from its formative years in 2004, through when it exploded in popularity with billions of dollars in revenues. He has also led the Google Calendar, Google Reader and Gmail teams. Since March 2009, he has led the Application Platform group. But it’s the AdSense experience that is particularly interesting here, as Facebook is attempting to better monetize its service.
Badros will report to Mike Schroepfer, who Facebook hired from Mozilla in July of last year. Schroepfer is the VP of engineering.
Before Google, Badros worked at Go2Net which was later acquired by InfoSpace. He served as the Chief Technical Architect at both companies. His Google profile doesn’t reveal much about him, other than the schools he attended, and his blog — which he infrequently posts on.
Update: Here’s Facebook’s official statement statement:
“Greg Badros has joined Facebook as a director of engineering, reporting to Mike Schroepfer. Greg is one of the most accomplished engineering talents at Google, and it’s wonderful that he has decided to bring these talents to Facebook and take on numerous responsibilities across the engineering organization.”
that’s huge
Adsense is nothing but cheat. Both novice clickers, and poor advertisers.
That is a ridiculous comment….AdSense would not have become #1 Text Ad Network if it had not provided value to advertisers and publishers…..
Regarding the article, I think Facebook will eventually offer their advertisers to appear on other sites.
They’re probably looking to get him to help them monetize the social network which has been having problems doing so with notoriously poor ctr.
That good for him. How much thy are paying him now than earlier on Google?
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Thats a Big Pick
huge.
its also ironically another google employee.
so who got demoted from that position to make room for him
This is a great move by Facebook. I’m intrigued to see what ideas Greg has in store for Facebook.
Probably more monetization.
This is an extremely smart move by Facebook if they’re reasoning for doing this is to better monetize their website. I’m wondering what strategies and plans will come out of this move.
Ultimately, salespeople slow down the selling process. The adsense platform normalises pricing and speeds up the ad placement time drastically, and takes the pesky salespeople out of the loop.
Advertisers want value, ease of use, and immediacy, and GREAT analytics. Adsense delivers this. Facebook should, but doesn’t as yet deliver this.
Facebook must create an adsense-esque platform that delivers great value to advertisers, to get to its next level of revenue growth, and survival.
no wonder they needed a $200 million infusion of capital… this guy must have been expensive
Ouch!
It’s great that they hired him but it’s not who you hire necessarily, it’s what they can do. If Facebook still isn’t making money, or as much as they should be, in a year from now, it won’t be a smart hire. It should be interesting to see what ideas he will come up with, hopefully getting rid of the Digg voting on the ads will be the first thing he does, that is just so stupid.
While I agree with your first sentence, I do find it a bit of a tall order to say: if Facebook (as an entity) isn’t making money a year from now that he was not a smart hire. With a company that size it is hard to grade exactly how much his contributions are adding to the revenue of the company. A Director role provides direction and experience to lead. I am sure his record speaks for itself.
always fun to watch. thanks for the update.
I’ve been expecting something like this. Facebook does know a great deal about its users, and it does seem that should enable terrific ad targeting, but judging from the ads I see there, they have a long way to go. Hiring this guy and other ex-AdSense engineers makes good sense for Facebook.
FYI, Mike Schroepfer is our VP of Engineering. Looking forward to working with Greg!
I see you made a correction but no acknowledgment, rendering this comment moot and senseless.
LOL get used to techcrunch’s style. Deflect, blame the NYTimes — and if it is a slow Friday complain about Facebook.
I don’t understand the line of people jumping the Google ship, and in this case I’m even more perplexed as to why he would jump to Facebook of all places. Most of the ex-googlers seem to start their own business. Interesting.
What’s not to understand?
1) Join Google long before their IPO.
2) Enjoy a great job until you become fully vested and have millions in liquid capital.
3) Start a company.
I’m looking forward to working with Greg again. Welcome!
That is a great move by Facebook. I think Facebook should also take a couple of lessons from Wordpress.
Gut tells me this guy is legit, and I’ve never met or heard of him. Think about it. Here’s a guy who has been in the trenches for a number of years executing on a number of initiatives.
This may be the guy who helps FB figure out some “stuff”.
I used to work with Greg at Infospace. He’s a bright guy, and its always refreshing to work and speak with someone who actually “gets it”.
I wonder what his vanity url will be….
What??
Yes this is serious stuff, with the vanity URL episode FB proved that they are world class systems operation and if you ask me better than Google in many ways – they are really going places. The business marketers and B2C guys better start waking up real soon.
@g2m Walter Adamson
Obviously, there will be more ads on fb.
Good luck facebook.
This is a great move.
I think facebook is trying to generate more revenue through it’s advertising streams to stave of having to charge it’s users.
If they achieve that then surely it’s got to be a win win for everyone.
I have to wonder how tight the Google AdSense patent is, and if this guy would be infringing on that if he effectively re-created the same platform for Facebook.
Hmm, interesting. Keep us posted TC re FB and its interesting developments.
Greatt ..Funny…
FB has a huge captive audience that they really do not engage advertising-wise.
A very wise move by Facebook. Since he lead the key applications of the google tools, he has the experience Facebook needs. Additionally since this is his second time around the block, he has the wisdom of what works and what could be done better.
Looking forward to seeing what new tools are going to be in development.
FB audience is not there to buy. CTRs are bad on FB.
It’s all about that xXx $ gUaP $ xXx
Good luck on that
What is facebook planning ? To have its own ad center and offer that to applications as google has been doing ?
Would be nice if Facebook came out with an affiliate program
how much do these guys get paid?
bubble gum and scooby snacks.
Not even he can save Facebook
Excellent news indeed. I’m definitely looking forward to working with Greg.
Amazing dude, sounds like a real cut throat industry now doesnt it?
RT
http://www.real...nonymity.pro.tc
He is so cute.
It seems like facebook is doing every possible thing that can be done to make facebook the No1 visited website of the world..
I hope he thinks up something so we can get some cheaper highly targeted traffic than what google costs now a days. Maybe, ‘Facebook Search’, even? They could just make the facebook search bar do web page searches too so you’d never have to leave facebook. I’d pay for those clicks, would be a lot more targeted than just sidebar profile page ads.
Look at all the noobs advertisers. Facebook is a platform for newbie advertisers/affiliates who failed terribly at search advertising.
-G
I don’t see much impact. Facebook users look at ads less frequently than users of the other sites. Problem with Facebook Advertising.
good,………
adsense is such a smart program in that it utilizes the volume of accepting almost anyone (at least initially) and allows google to basically serve way more impressions than other programs that only allow in the top tier sites