Jen Chin (aka Maps Guide Jen) has decided to leave Google and pursue a graduate degree in environmental management. Because I’m not a “practitioner” of SEO I only encountered Jen at events. But I liked her very much and appreciated her sincere dedication and positive attitude. David Mihm offers an appreciation from someone who’s in the trenches with Maps and SEO.
She will be succeeded by Ari Bezman. Good luck Jen in your new program (I must admit to being pleased to see someone exiting the tech sector for a role that might help society.)
August 17, 2009 at 4:07 pm |
I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with Ari at Local Search Summit this week and he sounded like he had a pretty good grasp on a lot of the SMB issues with Google LBC and was open to working with the community to improve the experience.
August 17, 2009 at 6:56 pm |
We’ll miss interacting with Jen!
She was a real credit to the Google Maps team, and did a great job at both communicating Google policy while also putting a human and friendly face on this section of the company.
I wish Jen well in her new endeavors!
August 18, 2009 at 2:41 am |
It’s been a true pleasure for me to have met so many of you in person. You can be sure that I will continue to keep up with the local search world through RSS. Thanks for the very kind wishes (both here and on David’s blog)!