14 DAY TRIAL // 12,328. This is Google's magic number. Or at least it was. If you don't get it, this is the number of the Google employees reported by Wikipedia on March 31, 2007. Today, the number is probably 12,326 as two engineers who struggled to make the Mountain View company become the most important firm on the Internet left Googleplex. The first one was Jason Shellen, a Blogger guru who joined Google when the search giant acquired the blog service in 2003. Today, a new important Googler announces his departure but there is no official reason beside a personal matter.
Pedram Keyani, 29 years old, worked for Orkut and said the decision is 100 percent belonging to him as he thinks there are many things to do in this life than working for Google.
"On Friday July 13th, 2007 I resigned from Google in search of new challenges and risks. This was a hard decision to come to and I have been seriously thinking about it for the last few months. In the end I decided (with support from my wife) that I am at the point in my career where I can make risky decisions," Pedram Keyani wrote on his personal blog.
"I am young enough that I can jump off the ledge and not worry about landing on my feet or my head because either way I have time to pick myself up and try again. So Friday I leaped off that ledge, look for an update on where I land."
As I said, this is not the first employee who leaves the Mountain View company looking for another challenge. Some time ago, Google also lost Vanessa Fox, the one who managed to create an exciting community around Webmaster Central. She announced her departure from Google in June when she mentioned that another company might offer her the challenge she needs.