Feeling Lucky

The Googlesphere is abuzz with word that Steve Chen, who co-founded YouTube with Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim and later sold it to Google (GOOG) for $1.65 billion, has left his post as YouTube's chief technology officer. And here's the thing: he did it last fall, and we're only hearing about it now! Who says you can't keep a secret in Silicon Valley?

The news first broke on All Things D, where Peter Kafka got YouTube spokesman Ricardo Reyes to confirm the move: "Steve shifted his focus to help with some Google engineering projects. He's still involved with YouTube and invested in its success." Google has not disclosed what Chen is working on now. PaidContent openly predicts that YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley will be gone soon as well.

What does this all mean for Google?

Take #1: Nothing. As Kafka points out, YouTube is a lot bigger than Chen or Hurley now, and the site operated without any bumps in the road once he left. "The fact that Chen's move has gone unreported until now should underscore that his departure didn't represent a major org chart reshuffling," he writes. "The technical challenges of the site have long been handled by a large engineering team."

Take #2: Chen was dragging YouTube down. At least, that's the implication of Valleywag writer Ryan Tate's post: "It's no secret that YouTube needs to make money; its annual losses have been estimated at between $175 million and $471 million. Meanwhile, Hulu may have already matched the ad revenue of YouTube, which is twice Hulu's age, thanks to old-media-friendly content. The more completely Google breaks with YouTube's past, the easier it will be for CEO Eric Schmidt to the movie and TV studios."

Take #3: Google's still terrified about a brain drain. Over at Seeking Alpha, Andy Beal speculates that the months of silence on Google's part can only mean one thing: Google wants to keep Chen and his clever colleagues inside the tent, and buzz about his departure would just give more Google employees ideas. "Reading between the lines, it seems as though Chen's not as important to YouTube-now that a whole army of engineers are at its disposal-but he could play a vital role at one of its competitors," he writes.

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New York Times reporter Miguel Helft profiles Dana Wagner, the lobbyist in charge of convincing the world that Google (GOOG) isn't a monopoly, despite whatever your lying eyes might tell you. If you've read The Big Money's take on Wagner (and don't say you haven't!), you already know the gist of the piece: Google claims that it's actually a small player if you define the market as every bit of advertising sold in the universe, it doesn't use its power to unfairly restrict competition, anyone can steal Google's customer base in seconds by building a better product, etc. But one tidbit stood out in Helft's piece.

Google's presentation has long been circulating on the Internet—long enough, in fact, for rivals and consumer groups to rebut it point-by-point. At a San Francisco press conference earlier this month, Wagner was going through his talking points when reporters started getting e-mails on their smartphones. It was Microsoft (MSFT), mailing counterarguments to the press even as Wagner was making his pitch. Suddenly, Wagner discovered, reporters' questions were considerably more skeptical than he might have anticipated.

We can't think of a time when a company's rival hijacked a press conference via e-mail in real time. That's gotta be a first. Between this, Bing's unexpected power and utility, and the $80 million to $100 million the company is spending promoting the search engine, Microsoft is staying on Google like white on rice.

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