I just read two blog posts this morning about big shots in the technology industry who are on Facebook. The posts were Jeff Pulver's Goodbye LinkedIn. Hello Facebook. and Robert Scoble's Why Facebook, why now?
Both posts got me to wondering how many execs from major Internet companies like Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft could you actually find on Facebook. One of the cool things about the search engine on Facebook is that it shows you what “networks” the people who match the query are members of. Since the person has to have an email address from that domain (either a corporate email address or a college alumni email address) then you can be fairly certain that the profile isn’t fake. Here’s who I found after a few minutes of quick searches, you may have to be a member of Facebook to see the search results
Google Execs on Facebook
- Marissa Mayer (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=marissa+mayer.
- Adam Bosworth (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=adam+bosworth
- Kai-Fu Lee (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=kai+fu+lee
Yahoo! Execs on Facebook
- Brad Garlinghouse (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=brad+garlinghouse
- Jeff Weiner (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=jeff+weiner
- Qi Lu: (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=qi+lu
Microsoft Execs on Facebook
- Ray Ozzie (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=ray+ozzie
- Steven Sinofsky (view friends): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=steven+sinofsky
- Steve Ballmer (friend's list marked private): Found via http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=steve+ballmer
How many of these folks do you think have a profile on MySpace? I think this is definitely another data point which validates danah boyd’s theory on the differences between the user base of both sites.