Google ups social media stakes with 4chan hire: by David Reid | @cnbcdavy for www.cnbc.com
Google has hired the founder of controversial website, 4chan to help rejuvenate its social media strategy.
Christopher Poole took to Tumblr to reveal his new job, saying he was excited to join a company staffed with passionate and enthusiastic staff.
"I can't wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company," the 27-year-old's post said.
Google+ architect and vice-president of streams, photos, and sharing, Bradley Horowitz confirmed the appointment on a single short post on Google+.
That appointment has sparked speculation that Google is to revamp its social media ambitions.In 2010 it attempted to launch Google Buzz, based around Gmailconnections, but privacy concerns forced the closure in December 2011.
Google+ replaced Buzz in December 2011 and has clocked up 418 million active users in December, according to market analysis company DMR. Facebook's company figures, meanwhile, say that it had 934 million active users in December.
Controversy
Christopher Poole was described in a Rolling Stone article as the 'Mark Zuckerberg of the online underground.'
According to his own website, he founded 4chan when he was just 15 years old.
The community website, 4chan, is famous for spawning memes such as Rick-rolling where online users are redirected to a video of Rick Astley's hit song 'Never Gonna Give you Up' .
The 4chan website claims to have 22 million users a day.
However the site has also been criticized for hosting pornographic imagery and in 2014 was used by hackers leaking naked pictures of high profile women, including actress Jennifer Lawrence.
In January 2015, Poole retired from running 4chan and subsequently sold the site to Japanese social media expert, Hiroyuki Nishimura, for an undisclosed fee.
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