Everybody seemed bumed from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=922344, but it looks like Don is in a better place. Google certainly meshes better with the YC hacker/startup scene than Microsoft; I'd expect Don's job to be a tad easier.
I certainly wouldn't see either google or microsoft as 'meshing better with the YC hacker/startup scene', they're both very large companies, with all the downsides that brings.
Oh, I think you're way off base on that. Google is far more congruent with the startup community than MS is. Just to mention one example, look at the differences in how they relate to open source (and the web itself for that matter). No doubt much of this relates to their origins. Google is the very prototype of the hacker startup that goes all the way.
Google's large-company-ness no doubt slows it down in a zillion ways, but there are still profound differences here (just as I'm sure there are between MS and, say, Oracle).
I wonder if Google has a hit list of people to immediately hire should they leave their currently tenured job posting. It seems like it would be quite strategic to hire away top execs from a direct competitor like Microsoft. I can almost picture Ballmer throwing more chairs...
I liked how in the TC interview a couple of weeks ago, Don said that though he believes in Microsoft, he can believe in more than one company. He has a very interesting and well-thought-out business philosophy. I think he'll do well at Google.
Note to Microsoft: when a top-tier competitor snaps up your recently discarded "trash" employees, perhaps that's a prime indication you made a mistake.
I don't know what's going on with the top leadership at MS but there doesn't appear to be much. They've done some good technical work (Win7 for example), but they keep making huge missteps. Windows Mobile is a train wreck. Bing was a step in the right direction, away from the horrific Live search, but MS has already started patting themselves on the back instead of buckling down for the remaining hard work it'll take for them to make bing better than google. MS is quietly bumbling into becoming a dilbert company, if they continue on this path at some point they will hemorrhage talent at an unsustainable rate and find themselves a company of increasingly diminishing relevance and prospects.
...perhaps that's a prime indication you made a mistake.
Or it's an indication that your competitor wants everyone else to think you made a mistake... And that they want you to make each future employment decision based not only on its good for the company but also on how it looks in the press. Either way, a smart move by Google.
Google does not strike me as the kind of company where hiring decisions are made on anything other than the merits. Just try interviewing there if you want to see for yourself.
Unlikely. Google doesn't appear to operate that way, they are very careful with their hiring. And outside of hacker news and other tiny techie/startup circles this hiring (and the firing) isn't on the radar, I don't think it affects Microsoft's appearance outside of the startup community one bit.
Also, according to Don's blog the first offer from Google came 90 minutes after the news of his firing was out. Which seems more an indication that google really wants him, and less an indication of cold strategic PR calculation. Nearly everyone who's been following Don Dodge's work was surprised by MS's move and considered it a mistake, so google's move is not surprising in the least.
Bing is actually picking up a bit, they're almost back at the traffic levels they had when they started out, but it is anybodies guess as to whether that is 'real' traffic or bought/redirected traffic. It's hard to hit a microsoft property these days and not get 500 bing links in front of you.
Almost every second link on msn.com is now a bing link!
Everybody seemed bumed from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=922344, but it looks like Don is in a better place. Google certainly meshes better with the YC hacker/startup scene than Microsoft; I'd expect Don's job to be a tad easier.