100,000 Disconnect’ers

On December 20, 2010

DisconnectSometime today, Disconnect and Facebook Disconnect combined got their 100,000th active user on Chrome. Disconnect was released exactly one week ago and had 25,170 users as of yesterday. Facebook Disconnect was released exactly two months ago and had 74,417 users.

That the extensions, with no viral features, marketing, or PR (I just gave TechCrunch an exclusive preview of Disconnect), are now being run by 100,000 people each week is a clear message to Facebook, Google, and every other Internet company that they can’t take our data without our permission anymore.

My 2,686th, and Last, Day at Google

On December 12, 2010

I left Google a month back (and have been doing a little hacking since). I’m told posting your farewell email is all the rage, so here goes:

From: Brian Kennish <bkennish@google.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Subject: My 2,686th, and Last, Day at Google


(Some of those were Saturdays, Sundays, and days I was pretending to be sick.)

Seven years, six jobs, four teams, three offices, and two coasts later, I’m turning in my Google badge. I’ve been getting asked for three-and-a-half years, “Why are you still here?” The answer was simple: devrel.

I’m certain the developer-relations job and team are the best things about Google. I can finally admit: I can’t believe you can get paid to help startups and independent developers build cool stuff — I’d do so for free. The people on this team and those we work closely with are amazingly talented and dedicated and I’m feeling lucky I got to learn from many of you. Most of all, I want to thank Mike for turning this ragtag bunch of misfits into an important and respected part of Google. We’ve come a long way and I don’t know another manager who would’ve gotten us so far.

I wish I could say goodbye to everyone and have hardly had a chance to to anyone. But if I linger, I might end up changing my mind. Please stay in touch. You can get a hold of me by replying-all to this message (my personal address is in the “To:” field). And I’m pretty easy to find on the web now — a year and a half of developer advocacy and I’ve totally pwned the other three Brian Kennishes in Google search results.