Google just hired moot

When Christopher Poole started 4chan, the anything-goes message and image board was effectively an English knock-off of the immensely popular Japanese board 2channel. However, the little site took off fast, and it wasn’t long before 4chan became home to a massive userbase of trolls, pranksters, hackers, and some I assume are good people.

Something of the Mos Eisley of the internet, 4chan never really made its founder, who goes by the online handle “moot,” very much money. With Poole at the helm, 4chan grew into a massively influential online presence that served as a catalyst for an abundance of memes and the founding of the hacktivist ‘organization’ Anonymous.Now it looks like Google wants to put Poole’s long experience with the weird side of the web to use for them.

That’s right. Google has hired Christopher Poole. Right now there doesn’t appear to be much information as to what kind of role the 4chan founder will serve at the search giant, but it wouldn’t be surprising to find him landing on a team focused on enlivening Google+.

It’s an interesting move to say the least. Some moot fans might be scratching their heads at the hire, but it seems like it couldn’t come at a better time for Poole. Last September, Poole sold 4chan to 2channel founder Hiroyuki Nishimura. Considering all he managed to accomplish with 4chan given so few resources, it will be interesting to see what he does with the power of Google on his side.

What are your thoughts regarding Google picking up Poole? Any speculation as to how they’ll be putting him to work? Let us know what you think in the comments below!