Google has hired Chris Poole, the founder of online message board 4chan. It isn’t entirely clear what they expect him to do at the online giant, but it is presumed that he will be bringing his experience to Google’s own social network.
The announcement of Poole (who is also known as moot) joining Google came through a post on his blog. This was shortly followed by confirmation from G+ head Bradley Horowitz on Twitter; which served to confirm the suspicion that Poole will be working on the G+ team to inject some new life into it.
You may have seen the news (https://t.co/jwjOBocqJk) from @moot. Thrilled he's joining the team! Welcome Chris!
— Bradley Horowitz (@elatable) March 7, 2016
Poole’s hiring is an unusual step for Google considering that 4chan’s philosophy is extremely different from that of G+. While 4chan values anonymity and allows anyone to post without logging in, G+ has often tried to force people to reveal their identities and use their real names.
In the past, Poole had criticised Google’s handling of user identities. He claimed that Twitter does it better, although he also called out Facebook for making the same mistakes as Google. It is unknown if his opinion has changed, or if he is going into Google to make some severe changes to G+.
[Source: Chris Poole, Bradley Horowitz (Twitter)]
