Facebook isn’t just looking to snatch up users from Google in the video space by aggressively advancing their video efforts, they have also now snatched up one of Google’s employees to lead a new hardware division called Building 8. Former ATAP head and former DARPA director Regina Dugan will be leaving Google for Facebook to head up the new division that Facebook is opening and help them build new hardware while Facebook will provide the software side of things to help the new hardware run and function. Facebook hasn’t given out much detail about the new division or what it plans to achieve within the hardware space, but they have said what it produces will assist them in keeping the world connected and expanding that connection across the globe.
According to Dugan, leaving Google has left her both excited and sad at the same time as helping the ATAP division and Google create some innovative technology and projects has been fulfilling and joyful. Referring to Facebook’s new building 8 she states that “Building 8 is an opportunity to do what I love most… tech infused with a sense of our humanity.” At Google, one of the products that could perhaps relate to this feeling more closely than anything else is Project Jacquard of which Levi’s was named the first partner, technology woven fabric that has the potential to connect people to their mobile devices in a whole new way, by letting them interact with the clothes they’re wearing and having those interactions translate into actions on their connected devices.
Although Dugan is likely to be a huge addition to the new team, Facebook states that the entire division will be composed of hundreds of people to help them realize their goals of keeping people connected with this new hardware. Facebook also expects to spend hundreds of millions on the development that comes out of the new division which helps to show that they’re extremely serious about forging this new path in hardware technology. Although the announcement about Dugan’s departure has been made public today, the new role at Facebook has yet to begin.