Daniel Tunkelang leaving Endeca for Google

In a move that certainly shocks me, Daniel Tunkelang, formerly chief scientist at enterprise search vendor Endeca (whom we interviewed One on one [1]) has left Endeca [2] for Google. Tunkelang made the announcement on his blog last week. He noted the irony of the move given he has been a consistent critic of the way that Google handles certain types of search.

He acknowledges this incongruity in his post when he wrote:

"Readers here know that I’ve been a very public critic of Google’s simplistic approach to user interaction on the open web."

Interestingly, people at Google were listening and offered him a job applying what he has learned at Endeca to the open web. Again in his own words:

"My mission is to apply my passion for human-computer information retrieval [3] (HCIR), an approach that Endeca has pioneered in the enterprise, to the world’s largest information problems--and where better to do that than at the company that aspires to organize the world’s information."

It was more than a bit surprising to me that Tunkelang would be moving to the consumer side of search, given his background, but it sounds like it was an opportunity that was too good to let pass. I'm sure Endeca is sad to see someone with his level of understanding of its products leave the company.

It sounds like it was a difficult decision for him to make, but in the end the challenge called and he couldn't resist. Endeca's loss is clearly Google's gain.

For more information:
- see Daniel Tunkelang's Noisy Channel blog post [4]

Related Articles:
One on One with Daniel Tunkelang of Endeca [1]
Should Google emphasize faceted search more? [5]
Endeca releases faster, more flexible search engine [6]
CMS Watch says enterprise search vendors are opening up [7]