Yahoo VP Leaves for Google as Layoffs Rage

I had the pleasure of listening to then-Yahoo Vice President for Product Strategy Bradley Horowitz speak at Renaissance Makati City Hotel last year. He sounded like an incredibly smart guy, successfully answering a sticky question from yours truly. That’s why I’m not surprised Google pirated him.

He will be working with Joe Kraus, director of product management and head of Google’s OpenSocial initiative, although we do not yet know his exact role.

This is a blow for Yahoo. Most new products (at least the fun stuff) goes through his group, and he is often the face of Yahoo at industry events. He is universally liked and respected, certainly outside of Yahoo and, as far as I can tell, within.

Bradley joined Yahoo in May 2004 as Director of Multimedia Search, and later worked on Yahoo Desktop Search and the Yahoo Toolbar. He was also key in getting the Flickr acquisition done.

Horowitz jumps to Google as layoffs rage across Yahoo. Microsoft has been losing talent to Google for years; seems even buying Yahoo won’t stop the bleeding.

(Photo by Eirik Solheim. BY-NC-SA.)

Spore Launch Date Announced

For too many years now, games have focused too much on flashy content and too little on actual design. Sims creator Will Wright promises to change all that with Spore. Originally referred to by the public as SimEverything, this evolution/civilization/exploration game has been eight years in development. Considering the mind-boggling gameplay permutations allowed by its procedural engine, I’m not surprised it took that long. Now we have a release date: September 7, 2008. Happy Darwin Day, everyone.

Even this 2006 presentation by Wright was enough to draw applause at the Game Developers Conference.