Gawker: valleywag, ultimate frisbee

Google's new CIO can evangelize the enterprise, but how's his ultimate frisbee game?

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Morgan Stanley managing director Benjamin Fried will replace Google's departed CIO Douglas Merrill, News.com reports. Besides making sure Googlers using Linux, Vista and Mac OS X can continue to work together, Fried will likely resume Merrill's role as evangelist for Google's enteprise software products. His background in Wall Street's risk-averse IT community should help Google's credibility with wary CTOs. On the ultimate frisbee field, however, Fried looks to be more a liability. He loves the sport, News.com reports, but he's got bad knees. In other words, put your money on Facebook continuing to drink Google's Jamba Juice.

Will working at Facebook blow like Google customer service? No

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:00:27 EST

Frustrated Googlers have at least one new hire at Facebook worried.

Friend of mine from east coast recently interviewed at Facebook. When we met over dinner, I asked her what dept. she interviewed at. She said the one that deals with user interaction — or customer support. So I asked her why, knowing her major and interest is math. She tells me at Facebook, within 3-6 months you move up the ladder to the position of your interest. I've never worked at Facebook or any other big corp. so I thought may be that is how it works. Now I'm not so sure after reading about Google. Should my friend be concerned?

We'd like to assuage these concerns — partially.

Why fret? Well, maybe because Facebook just hired the executive who oversaw Google's online sales and operations as its COO.

On the other hand, two reasons to lift up your chin: One is spelled I-P-O. The other? Facebook's ultimate frisbee dominance over Google. See below for a second, larger picture of Facebook's annual Games Day intramurals event in 2007. One in which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg looks less lonely.

Facebook repeats Google's ultimate humiliation

Owen Thomas — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:26:55 EDT

After a 15-11 loss in an ultimate frisbee match against a team of scrappy Facebookers, disc-flinging Googlers swore revenge. But the social network left the search engine, again, unable to find victory, dishing out another 15-12 tromping earlier this week. "All that free food weighing them down," snipes a Facebook-employed spectator of the match. Other Facebookers are more modest, crediting the Googlers for strongly competitive play — though some believe the Googlers may have brought on ringers who don't actually work for the company. Word is the Googlers want another rematch. What, are they trying to go for 3 out of 5? Have they seen what happened to Orkut? (Photo courtesy of the Ultimate Players Association)

Facebook delivers ultimate humiliation to Google

Owen Thomas — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:21:02 EDT

Bad enough that Facebook has stolen Google's buzz, recruited away top engineers, and dashed its hopes of being a player in social networks. Now, Valleywag has learned, a team of scrappy Facebookers has dealt those smug, self-satisfied, arrogant, overfed Googlers a humiliation where it really matters — on the ultimate frisbee field, that is. Ultimate frisbee, a sport mixing soccer and frisbee-tossing, is popular on the college campuses where Facebook first grew popular. Google's team, unwisely, challenged their Facebook counterparts to a game on the Stanford campus. The result? A 15-11 win for Facebook. Carolyn Abram, Facebook's resident blogger and a team member, adds a first-hand report:

I heard you heard about Facebook's ultimate frisbee game with Google last night. Just wanted to confirm that this was the first of many Google-Facebook matchups. We're looking to hire great engineers. Please let people know to include ultimate experience on their resume when applying.

So there you have it, folks: The easiest way to get hired at Facebook is to come on as a ringer on their ultimate frisbee team. (Photo courtesy of the Ultimate Players Association)