The last time I talked about Christopher Poole (aka “moot”) was over a year ago when he did a farewell stream for the users of 4chan. Of course, he’s the guy who created the place, so I can’t really begrudge him that. Still, the last thing I thought I would be writing about him was that he got hired at Google. He’s come a long way from the CuckMaster days. OK, maybe he hasn’t, but I still have to tip my hat a little bit towards him for scoring this new gig.
Google has hired Chris Poole, the founder and former owner of the controversial Internet community 4chan. The hire was first announced by Poole himself, and later confirmed by Bradley Horowitz, who is heading Google’s social efforts. (moot’s blog post)
Poole launched 4chan as an image sharing message board in 2003. For the first few years, he was only known under the pseudonym “moot,” until the Wall Street Journal revealed his identity in 2008. 4chan was initially meant to be a community for anime fans, but the site quickly evolved to encompass all kinds of geek culture, and became the birthplace for a number of popular memes.
It’s worth noting that 4chan repeatedly shut down message boards associated with racism and the so-called gamergate [sic] movement.
Google didn’t immediately respond to questions about Poole’s role at the company, but it’s likely that he will try to help the company with its struggling social strategy. Google launched Google+ as its answer to Facebook in late 2011, but has since scaled back ambitions to make Google+ a social layer for all of the company’s products and services. More recently, Google+ has focused on the creation of communities around topics of interest — something that Poole may be able to help with.
Honestly, this sounds like a pretty good hire for Google, if he is indeed going to be working on Google+. I’ve tried to get into using that shit like 20 times, but it just never feels quite right. Really, I should be posting on as many social networks as possible, however sometimes my motivation is lacking in that regard. If he could do something of note over there then the few shekels they’re paying him would be well worth it.
Then again, let’s face it: The overwhelming odds are that Google+ will continue to suck.
UPDATE: More info on the hire…
According to Business Insider, Poole will be working under Horowitz on Google Photos and Streams which we saw form out of breakup of Google+ last March. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of the hire, especially considering 4chan’s seedy reputation.
