Googler gets in on pre-IPO Facebook

The trend is clear--the best bait for well-fed Googlers, especially ones who joined after the company's 2004 IPO, is another hot pre-IPO company. And Facebook is that company.

The latest Googler to jump to Facebook is Ethan Beard. Formerly director of social media at the search giant, he will become director of business development at the popular social-networking company. The news was first reported by TechCrunch.

The defection comes shortly after Google sales chief Sheryl Sandberg left to go to Facebook. Others who have blazed the trail include Benjamin Ling of Google Checkout, Justin Rosenstein of GDrive, and Gideon Yu, formerly chief financial officer at YouTube who left shortly after Google acquired it in 2006.

However, with the recent downslide of stock markets across the US and the world, I don't think this IPO will be as big as the Google's IPO.