Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

HuffPo Hires Google Engineer Dierks

AOL’s media arm, the Huffington Post Media Group, has hired longtime Google techie Tim Dierks to oversee its growing programming engineering team as SVP of engineering.

Dierks founded and developed Google Checkout, among other things, at the search giant. He has been there since 2004, based in New York.

The fast-growing media and news site has added a lot of content to its offerings since selling to AOL, including merging a variety of sections and overhauling others.

Here’s the official press release from HPMG, which is announcing the move today:

The AOL Huffington Post Media Group Names Google’s Tim Dierks Senior Vice President of Engineering

Noted Software Engineer Who Oversaw Multiple Teams and Founded and Developed “Google Checkout” to Oversee Group’s Expanding Engineering Team

New York, NY — September 7, 2011 — The AOL Huffington Post Media Group, a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information, announces today that Tim Dierks, Software Engineering Manager at Google, has been named Senior Vice President of Engineering. In this position, he will be responsible for overseeing the group’s expanding programming team. Dierks is an acclaimed software engineer who oversaw multiple engineering teams at Google and founded and developed the company’s innovative Google Checkout offering. The announcement was made by Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group; Paul Berry, Chief Technology Officer of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group; and Alexander Gounares, Chief Technology Officer of AOL.

“I’m delighted to welcome Tim to our team,” said Arianna Huffington. “In addition to having a track record of successfully leading large programming teams focused on work that’s complex, fast moving and diverse, he’s also a creative force adept at seeing his vision through to completion. Tim shares our passion for constantly improving the user experience, and I look forward to adding his ideas, insight, and knowledge to the AOL HPMG mix.”

Said Paul Berry: “We’re continuing to build a premier editorial, engineering and product group, and Tim Dierks — a rare combination of effective leader and innovative thinker –- is an incredible addition to oversee our talented and hard working team of programmers.”

Tim Dierks joined Google NYC in 2004. At the company, he has worked on internal security systems, used his “20%” time to found Google Checkout, an online payment processing service, and led engineering teams working on many different initiatives, including AdSense for Feeds, Television and Print, and FeedBurner.

In his position leading a team building internal-facing applications for the company, he managed his group’s existing software programs, oversaw the building of innovative new products, and introduced a broader set of engineering tools, including broader outsourcing and software purchasing. He also built and led a research and development team in New York that focused on TV advertising audiences, which led to the development of a “bid on and buy your audience” sales offering. Prior roles at the company included leading the newspaper ads and publisher content engineering teams.

Said Dierks: “The AOL Huffington Post Media Group offers a wide range of great content and compelling social engagement. I look forward to working with Paul Berry and the AOL Huffington Post Media Group team to continue building technology to enable and drive this terrific platform.”

Said Alexander Gounares: “Technology innovation is fundamental to AOL’s products and services, so it’s fabulous to have a noted technologist like Tim joining the team. Across the breadth of AOL technologies, we are building a world class organization of top notch talent using the latest state of the art tools. Tim brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and leadership with him, and I am looking forward to working with him.”

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google