WebProNews

Blogger has repeatedly been ranked among Google's top properties, and now one of the people who got it there is gone.  Blogger's product manager, Eric Case, spent his last day at Google on Friday.

 Eric Case

Case left of his own accord after five years with the company.  An entry on his blog makes it sound like everything is great, and he's just seeking a change of pace.  "I enjoyed (beyond words) the freedom I experienced during my Jan-Feb sabbatical, as well as hearing about all the neat webby things people are doing," Case wrote.  "New web APIs seem to be popping up every few days, and they're just itching to be tinkered with."

As for the future, "I'm looking forward to collaborating with friends on interesting projects, and I'm available for consulting.  Eventually I'd love to settle down again with a small, focused team to build something nifty, but there's no rush."

Still, even if Case isn't angry with Google or jumping ship to Yahoo or Microsoft, he may be a difficult product manager to replace; experience aside, over 80 positive comments have been left on the blog entry announcing his departure, so it seems like Case had something of a personal following.

Neither Google nor the Blogger team have discussed successors.