WebProNews

Google's well-known specialties are search and advertising, and perhaps another couple products (YouTube, Blogger) also get more attention.  Google Earth is still one of the company's main attractions, though, and now a software engineer who's been attached to the project for five and a half years is quitting.

 Wes Thierry

Five and a half years ago, Google Earth wasn't even known by that name.  The software was called Earthviewer 3D, owned by Keyhole, and Wes Thierry describes the situation by writing, "We were working on this cool little application that allowed people to manipulate a 3D globe and zoom down to highly detailed overhead views.  Too bad there were only a handful of cities with data worth viewing."

Then Earthviewer 3D became Keyhole Pro, Google acquired the Keyhole company, and as Thierry states, "I gave them four years of my life."

Based on what Thierry told Stephen Shankland, he seems to have a new job lined up.  Yet, given the economy's condition and what's going on with Yahoo, it's still interesting to see someone voluntarily leave the land of free food and dogs at work.  We've seen other departures every so often, so Google might be losing some of its appeal.

In any event, the search giant has definitely lost another longtime employee.