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Internet Pioneer Vinton Cerf Joins Google

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer 19 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. has hired Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf to floatmore ideas and develop new products, adding another weapon to the onlinesearch engine leader's rapidly growing arsenal of intellect.

Cerf's defection from MCI Inc., announced Thursday, represents the latestcoup for Mountain View-based Google, which has been amassing more brainpoweras its payroll nearly quadrupled to 4,200 workers during the past two years.

Along the way, Google has been raiding other companies, a tactic that hassparked a legal battle with one of its major rivals, software makerMicrosoft Corp. The two high-tech titans battled in court this week over KaiFu-Lee's July resignation from Microsoft to oversee Google's efforts to opena research center in China.

In an interview, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said few of thecompany's recent hires have been as significant as Cerf, widely regarded asone of the Internet's creators because of his seminal work developing thenetwork's essential communications protocols, TCP/IP, at Stanford Universityin the 1970s.

"He is one of the most important people alive today," said Schmidt, who hasbeen friends with Cerf for more than 20 years. "Vint has put his heart andsoul into making the Internet happen. I know he is going to jump right inhere and start shoveling out new ideas for Google."

When he starts work at Google on Oct. 3, Cerf's official title will be"chief Internet evangelist," but he is determined to be more than afigurehead or detached visionary.

"What I have done in the past is not going to be important at Google," Cerfsaid during an interview. "What's important at Google is what you are doingtoday and what you going to do tomorrow. That's the metric I will bemeasured by."

Cerf will remain chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names andNumbers, the oversight agency for Internet domain names.

He also will continue as a visiting scientist at<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=NASA> NASA's Jet PropulsionLaboratory, where he has been focusing on a very Google-like project -trying to figure out a way to connect the Internet to outer space.

Cerf, 62, has spent the past 11 years at MCI, most recently as senior vicepresident of technology strategy. At MCI, he has worked on advancednetworking technologies including services that combine data, voice andvideo and helped design MCI Mail, one of the Net's first commercialapplications.

He said MCI's pending $8.5 billion sale to Verizon Communications Inc.didn't push him out the door. Instead, he said working at Google is "reallymy dream job."

Google didn't disclose Cerf's salary. When Google lured Lee away fromMicrosoft, it rewarded him with a $10 million compensation package,including a $2.5 million signing bonus, according to court documents.

Cerf expects to spend much of his time developing new applications as Googlecontinues to supplement the search engine that is core to the 7-year-oldcompany. In recent years, it has released free software to organize computerfiles, sort digital photos, generate maps and conduct Internet-based phonecalls and text chats. It also launched a Web-based e-mail service calledGmail.

"What Google has really been doing is building an entirely new (computing)infrastructure and whenever you do that, it creates opportunities for newapplications," Cerf said.

Cerf will be a graybeard in Google's youthful culture, which has been shapedby the company's 32-year-old founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But Cerfdoesn't expect to have trouble fitting in, even though his penchant forwearing three-piece suits also figures to set him apart in Google'sjeans-clad atmosphere.

"I'm 62 going on 12 anyway," Cerf said. "What's wonderful about (Google) isthat as long as you bring ideas to the table, it doesn't matter what else isgoing on."

Although he will report to Google engineering chief Alan Eustace in MountainView, Cerf won't be based in Silicon Valley. He will be working out of aVirginia office so he can stay close to his home.

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