8 posts and columns on Blake Ross

Competitors Build a Tool to Add Their Content Back Into Google Search

in Social on January 23 at 6:00 am PT

A new plugin adds content from competitors like Facebook and Twitter into Google’s new social search results. And it was built by engineers from those competitors.
nerdfight-feature

Facebook Gets With the Modern Friending Program, Adds Smart Lists

in Social on September 13, 2011 at 10:01 am PT

Facebook is updating its “Friend Lists” feature to help its users better address the fact that they have different relationships with Facebook friends from different parts of their lives.
FacebookFriendLists

News Byte

Key Developer Joe Hewitt Leaves Facebook

in Social on May 6, 2011 at 7:06 pm PT

Joe Hewitt, one of the early developers of Firefox and the creator of the Facebook iPhone app, has left the company, he announced today on his blog. Hewitt said he hopes to create software tools to help developers and designers, such as Firebug, the debugging extension he created more than five years ago. Hewitt had in 2007 been part of Facebook’s first acquisition, Parakey, along with his co-founder Blake Ross, a director of product at Facebook who is currently on leave. Other notable recent departures include Jonathan Heiliger and Jim Midgal.

Facebook Acqhirees Make a Quick Mark on Its Products

in Social on November 23, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Facebook has a well-defined M&A strategy of bringing in talent from young, small companies and shutting down their products. But there’s also a pattern emerging for what happens to that talent. Acqhired CEOs hold prominent roles on Facebook’s product team; nearly every recent Facebook product launch seems to have been introduced by an acqhired employee.

Join the Club: Facebook Has a Question, Too

in Media on July 28, 2010 at 2:36 pm PT

Why ask why? Facebook has a question service because everyone has a question service. Couldn’t be clearer, right?

Facebook 'Poke' Leads to Awkward One-Night Acquisition

in News on July 20, 2007 at 1:26 pm PT

Well would you look at that. Facebook has gone and bought itself a company. Yesterday, the nauseatingly overhyped social-networking site made its first acquisition, purchasing (for an undisclosed sum) Parakey, a start-up run by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, the engineering duo who created Firefox. “Blake and Joe built the Firefox Web browser and then [...]

Facebook ‘Poke’ Leads to Awkward One-Night Acquisition

in News on July 20, 2007 at 1:26 pm PT

Well would you look at that. Facebook has gone and bought itself a company. Yesterday, the nauseatingly overhyped social-networking site made its first acquisition, purchasing (for an undisclosed sum) Parakey, a start-up run by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, the engineering duo who created Firefox. “Blake and Joe built the Firefox Web browser and then [...]

You Could Have Had a Mega-Yacht or a Tuscan Estate. But You Had to Have That Underground Lair. Well, Look at You Now.

in News on July 20, 2007 at 11:00 am PT