Justin Uberti, lead developer of AOL Instant Messenger who worked on the product for almost nine years, last week left the company and joined the ranks of Google. Uberti played an integral role in the launch of AIM Triton and the Open AIM initiative.
Google has long been hiring top talent from rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo, and Uberti's departure from AOL may indicate the search giant wishes to grow its fledgling Google Talk client. As part of Google's $1 billion investment in AOL, the companies already plan to link up their IM networks and Uberti could play a role in making that a reality