“Gone Google” – The reasons why I decided to join Google
“Gone Google“, as described here, usually refers to organizations (schools, universities, startups, MNC’s, etc…) switching to the web-based Google Apps platform for their email, productivity and collaboration tools. A choice that I had actually made on the very first day I founded Bitsmedia and which I posted about on this article.
“Gone Google“ has taken a whole new meaning for me today as I am very excited to announce that I will soon be joining Google and more specifically the Developer Relations team in South-East Asia. For the most curious of you, here are the main reasons which have driven such decision.
- For the all-time internet and technology passionate guy that I am, very few companies have had such a huge impact on the way we use the internet today. Search and YouTube of course but also Ads, Maps, Chrome, Analytics, Android, Gmail, Google docs, App Engine, not forgetting the more recent Google Plus and Google Wallet. Those are just some of the many innovative products and technologies that Google and its army of nearly 30,000 super talented employees are working on …
- The extremely talented Googlers I have met during my 15 years in the industry as well as during the interview process have been key to this decision as well. Seating a few cubicles or video calls away from the engineers who build the products that billions of us use is an opportunity that I could not miss. Best of all, contributing alongside those teams to building those products is a very exciting challenge that I am eager to take on …
- Finally, it is important to understand that beyond the above mentioned ready-made tools and web services that most of us use as end-users, Google is truly becoming an open platform to enable 3rd party developers to build great apps and services. Android mobile apps, enterprise web services running on App Engine, Chrome extensions, and all the geo-services integrating Google Maps API are just a few exemples of what the community of external developers have started creating on top of the Google ecosystem. The Developer Relations team animates a growing community of 100,000+ active developers and bring them the tools, API, documentation and support to help them build successful products and businesses on the internet. After spending the past 15 years building web and mobile solutions for various startups (Spray, Soundbuzz, Bitsmedia) and MNC’s (Alcatel, Akamai, Vivendi), this is a fantastic opportunity to start helping the rest of the community …
If you’re a developer, a tech entrepreneur, a technical leader or even a blogger in South-East Asia, I look forward to engaging with you as soon as I officially start my new role within the next 6-15 weeks 
Regarding the iPhone and Android apps I have been building over the past 2-3 years, I will be transferring most of them to other developers while I will continue to support Muslim Pro during my free time . I will also start looking for new adoptive parents for Frenzapp, the social discovery platform which allows you to share your favorite songs and iPhone apps.
