Google gets free advertising on hacker news, techcrunch, etc

How? By hiring Don Dodge. Look at this – 35,000+ mentions on this story in the last 7 days. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3A*%3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7TSHB&tbo=1&tbs=qdr%3Aw&q=%22don+dodge%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g6 People within MSFT recognized Don’s importance, and I am willing to bet that anybody following this story knew immediately that Google would court Don, and turn this into a PR coup over their major competior. Hacker News is is one of the premier communities for young developers, and Google just bought advertising space all over the tech web by hiring Don, and looking again like the out of touch GIANT that they’re perceived as. The butchering of this story calls for a housecleaning by MSFT’s management of their PR department, lots of better ways this could have been handled.