Internet Pioneer Vinton Cerf Joins Google
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. has hired Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf to float more ideas and develop new products, adding another weapon to the online search engine leader's rapidly growing arsenal of intellect.
Cerf's defection from MCI Inc., announced Thursday, represents the latest coup for Mountain View-based Google, which has been amassing more brainpower as its payroll nearly quadrupled to 4,200 workers during the past two years.
Along the way, Google has been raiding other companies, a tactic that has sparked a legal battle with one of its major rivals, software maker Microsoft Corp. The two high-tech titans battled in court this week over Kai Fu-Lee's July resignation from Microsoft to oversee Google's efforts to open a research center in China.
In an interview, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said few of the company's recent hires have been as significant as Cerf, widely regarded as one of the Internet's creators because of his seminal work developing the network's essential communications protocols, TCP/IP, at Stanford University in the 1970s.
''He is one of the most important people alive today,'' said Schmidt, who has been friends with Cerf for more than 20 years. ''Vint has put his heart and soul into making the Internet happen. I know he is going to jump right in here and start shoveling out new ideas for Google.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Google-Cerf.html?hp&ex=1126238400&en=800aaa9373cd9458&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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