Austrian blogger and developer Florian Rohrweck recently discovered a lot of Google+’s upcoming features just by digging around in the source code for the new social networking service. He was one of the first (but not the only one), to reveal Google+ Games before its launch, for example, as well as still unreleased features like “Shared Circles” and social search, among other things.
Now, it seems, Google has had enough of Rohrweck’s snooping. It’s hiring Rohrweck to help secure the code instead.
This story sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? After all, just last week, Apple hired one of iOS’s top hackers, Nicholas Allegra, also known as “@comex” on Twitter, to work on securing its mobile operating system.
Likewise, Rohrweck will be tasked with securing Google Web apps from leaks, and possibly working as a developer advocate as well. (Even he doesn’t quite know what his duties will include, he says.) The ink isn’t dry on the job contract, Rohrweck notes, so technically he’s about to be hired, not hired yet.
But to be clear, it was the code snooping (and blogging about it, extensively) that got Google’s attention in the first place. Says Rohrweck in an exchange, “yep, it was my leaking and lurking that made them nervous!” Google had previously taken notice of the developer, and gave him a shout-out in Google+’s code by way of an easter egg.
We suppose that getting hired by Google means Rohrweck’s detailed and sneaky (and yep, sometimes NSFW) glances into the future of Google+ will now no longer be published for all to see. That’s too bad for us, but probably a smart by Google.
A Google project headed by Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, Google+ is designed to be the social extension of Google. Its features focus on making online sharing easy for users. “Circles,” think social circles, akin to Facebook’s lists. “Sandbar,” a user-unifying toolbar. “Sparks,” a search engine for sharing content between users. “Messenger,” a group messaging app that allows users to share with certain “Circles.” “Hangouts,” group video chatting designed to allow up to 10 users video chat at once. Each Google+ user can replace his...
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