Google Hires 4Chan Founder Chris Poole, AKA Moot

After selling his website, 4chan founder Chris Poole, also known as Moot, has been hired by Google. While it is still unclear what he’ll be doing, Engadget reports Poole will be offering his 12 years of experience “building online communities.”

There is speculation that Poole will be working on Google’s struggling social network, Google+.

According to Engadget:

“It’s not clear exactly what he’ll do. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if he gives Google+ a boost, improving its recent focus on community and giving you more reasons to visit.”

They continue:

“Either way, it’s definitely a big change of pace. Poole established 4chan as the message board where almost anything goes, and indirectly helped launch Anonymous, legendary pranks and countless internet memes — he’s jumping from the internet’s counterculture to the mainstream in less than a year. While it’s not surprising given the incentives (Poole didn’t make a lot of money from 4chan before the sale), the Google hire is bound to catch some of his admirers off-guard.”

This is most certainly an interesting development that will be worth watching. Poole is known as something of a figruehead for internet counterculture, embracing an environment with fewer rules and greater creative freedom.

“Because of the lack of rules,” Poole once said, “4chan has fostered an environment where there’s a lot of creativity and good things coming out of it.”

In January 2015, Poole stepped down from 4chan. He had worked there for over eleven years as an administrator. In September of that year, he hired 2Channel founder Hiroyuki Nishimura as a replacement.

“Hiroyuki is literally the only person in the world with as much if not more experience than myself in running an anonymous, large destination community that serves tens of millions of people,” Poole said in an interview with The New York Times. “He’s the great-grandfather of all of this.”