Go Paul! Having experienced the 'its not a great idea until someone with an Employee # < threshold has endorsed and/or invented it' first hand, I totally understand how weird that all feels. Glad you did the right thing and got to a better place.
Given what Adams says about the book's contents (no proprietary information) and the prior written permission, it's hard to see how Google could block its publication.<p>Google could request their name not be used to imply any endorsement, and perhaps raise a stink about the similarity in title to their now prominent feature.<p>But prevent the publishing of its contents? On what basis? (Threats of disfavoring the publishing house in the future?)<p>Even if the book <i>did</i> have trade secrets, our legal system isn't big on placing prior restraint on authors/publishers.
Paul Adams' last year presentation on Slideshare had a huge impact on my work designing social products. He really put it out there the frustations caused by Facebook. I am really glad he joined Facebook to work on those problems. I can't wait for his new book to come out.
>Many of you have asked me why my book ‘Social Circles‘ was delayed<p>>The good news is that I’m channeling this frustrating experience towards a better place, and am writing a new book. It’s called Grouped<p>Anyone think that's a coincidence?
Hey so we know that facebook has hired PR people to try to make google look bad .. what's up with these recent anti-google posts from ex-googlers? Can anyone verify that these posts weren't paid for?
interesting timing of this "blog post"...Facebook's PR machine has been known to go to great extents in the past. Hopefully the author was not influenced by that.
>> Google is an engineering company, and as a researcher or designer, it’s very difficult to have your voice heard at a strategic level.<p>So the answer? <a href="http://www.facebook.com/designjobs/" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com/designjobs/</a>
Quite disappointed that Google has blocked release of Paul's book, even post G+ release.<p>I guess "don't be evil" does not apply to this case in the house of Google. Sad.
He was probably ill fit for a company that "values technology, not social science" - I love google for that. And i think changing careers is always rewarding. What's more interesting is his thoughts about how the "web is being fundamentally rebuilt around people". Personally, i would not like to see that happen. The value of the web for me comes exactly because it's the information that matters, not who said it and what others think of it. I also see the ubiquity of identity information to be a blocker for radically free thinking, a factor that has given great value to the content of the web till now. It's good to have social networks for those who want to use the internet as a communication medium, but i personally dislike the way social networks become omnipresent.