Facebook moves to new Seattle office, 2 people in 2010, now 90

Facebook has moved into a new office in Seattle.

Facebook had an opening event at its new Seattle engineering office, offering a public glimpse into new digs where the company has sweeping views and room to nearly double the team.

It relocated April 2 from crowded space near Pike Place Market where the Seattle office opened with two employees in August 2010. It now has about 90 engineers.

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Here are the current openings in the office.

Seattle, WA

Located downtown in the metropolitan heart of the great Pacific Northwest, this office will house many of the brightest engineers at Facebook. If you're an experienced engineer in the Seattle area, our Seattle office offers you a local opportunity to help build the next generation of Facebook.
Pick Your Location

21 open positions

Product Management

Recruiting

Software Engineering

 

What the Startup pitch really means

Virgin Entrepreneur has a great post on what the startup pitch really means.

Startup says what? Here's an entrepreneur guest blog on common startup myths and how you can learn from them...They are the little white lies entrepreneur like to tell partners, investors, potential employees and their spouses. It's like a code. Every sentence can be translated from startup-speak to the English equivalent. I know I'm in for a long conversation, meeting or pitch when I hear any of these...

One of my favorite lines is.

Startup Says: "The product is ... a breakthrough, patented, innovative, yada-yada-yada"

Translation: "Lipstick is on the pig get ready to watch us make bacon"

When I hear these adjectives I'm prepared for a crappy demo or an unfinished product. My advice is to dispense with the adjectives. I want to know what the product does, who the target customer is and then I want a demo. In almost every case I'll be able to detect the secret sauce if it's there and I'll be more excited because it was my discovery. After the demo reiterate the opportunity and then just shut up. The questions will come.

 

 

Startup says what?By Chuck Russell - Apr 12, 2012

A fun place for food and drinks when visiting Amazon.com in Seattle

Amazon.com is hiring a lot and expanding its data center presence.  This is bringing more and more people to Amazon.com's office in Seattle.  The main offices in South Lake Union are in a much more convenient location for restaurants and drinks.

The Brave Horse Tavern is right next to some of the offices.

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I've been to this location a variety of times to attend AWS events.  And, a nice sunny April day in Seattle was able to visit the Tavern.

Here is a review of the location by a frequent local.

Over the last couple years Tom Douglas has expanded his bevy restaurants quite substantially. The Brave Horse Tavern is one of three restaurants housed in the historic Terry Building in the South Lake Union area. The two-story building is a warm respite from the modern, but a little cold, glass and steel Amazon buildings that surround it on three sides. In the same building you’ll find Cuoco and Ting Momo.


The Brave Horse is a little different from Tom Douglas’ other locations in that the bar has a much more significant part in the scheme of things. This location is about beers, burgers, pretzels; watching games on the many TVs; gathering after work with friends for a quick game of shuffleboard or darts. Having said that, it’s much more than a standard tavern or standard tavern fare.

The Tavern has a Woodstone oven which is great for...

Brick Oven Pretzels ~ malt boiled, hearth roasted

hearth roasted asparagus
melty teleme cheese, grated egg,
green garlic bread crumbs 10.

penn cove clams, brave horse brew 10.

And, gave me more ideas on what to cook at home.

A guy who lives on e-mail goes from Blackberry to iPhone and back to Blackberry

Most people who still use a Blackberry live on e-mail.  Here is a post by a reporter for ZDNet that explains his woes going from Blackberry to iPhone and back to Blackberry.

Saying goodbye to my iPhone, the data hog

After flirting with an iPhone for a month, here's why I switched back to a BlackBerry. The iPhone was fun, don't get me wrong, but I know where my loyalties lie.

Here is the author's usage that gives you an idea of his perspective.

I get between 200-250 emails on an average day. I receive roughly 20-30 tweets or direct messages a day. I get dozens of Facebook notifications, calendar alarms, and numerous phone calls. Each and every time, my BlackBerry vibrates for a whole second, and the LED notifier flashes. Yet even with this, my battery lasts two days without needing to charge, while an iPhone seemingly lasts for only 12-14 hours without charge, but only if small animals are not sacrificed to the Apple gods at regular intervals.

This isn't a story you often hear.  The author closes with his conclusion he wants a Blackberry.

My business and work partner for a month, my iPhone. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but I know where my loyalties lie. And perhaps that's what makes the general consumer market so different. We want, we take, and we rarely focus on what we actually need. I need my BlackBerry, and while I still want an iPhone, I know full well it will take time before it needs me.

Unfortunately for RIM this is a minority.

Google's Future Growth is Mobile and Social, are you focusing on this too?

Forbes has an article on how much Mobile and Social are fueling Google's growth.

Google's Earnings Show That Mobile And Social Are The Future

Trefis TeamTrefis Team, Contributor
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Google reported its earnings for Q1 2012 on April 12, with gross revenue of $10.65 billion, up 24% year-on-year. [1] It also reported a significant jump in operating and net income, and the same ratio of traffic acquisition costs as a percentage of advertising revenues as in 2011 – 25%.

As a result of its push into mobile advertising, the cost-per-click dropped nearly 12% over last year, but there was a 39% growth in aggregate paid clicks, which led to a healthy increase in advertising revenues. We expect this trend to continue as mobile search advertising drives the next phase of earnings growth for Google while traditional online search advertising takes a backseat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note how traditional online advertising has taken a backseat.  This is like Microsoft having Windows and Office take a backseat to Mobile and Facebook-type products.

An interesting way to look at Google is how it's stock is valued.

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Here is Microsoft for contrast.

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Interesting that this same system shows Amazon's company value to have Kindle and AWS equal.

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