The Social

The news started to emerge in various Twitter feeds and personal blog posts Monday: David Recordon, a Six Apart developer and prominent open-standards advocate, has left the blog software company to take a job at Facebook.

Recordon, who formally announced the job change on his LiveJournal, will take on the title of senior open programs manager. "This past year as I've worked closer with teams at Facebook, I've been impressed by their products, smart people, and innovation," he wrote in the post.

It wasn't so long ago that Facebook was seen as the ultimate in closed-off technology, with profiles hidden behind a log-in wall and features built with in-house technologies rather than open standards. At that time, a hire like Recordon would've seemed to many a ludicrous match. But Facebook's changing: it joined the OpenID Foundation earlier this year, made a big chunk of its developer platform open-source, and its Facebook Connect universal-log-in product has earned both developer and mass-market approval.

Recordon told me he doesn't want to say too much until after he's actually started at Facebook, which will be on Monday. But I spoke to a few of his soon-to-be Facebook colleagues, and they sound excited: the 5-year-old company has never had an already-prominent open-source advocate on staff, .

Facebook, which plans to raise its employee head count by 50 percent this year, made several very prominent hires earlier this month when it acquired start-up FriendFeed in a deal that seems to have been aimed largely at getting its ex-Googler founders on board at Facebook.

Correction 2:25 p.m. PDT: This story initially misstated David Recordon's new title at Facebook. It is senior open programs manager.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to increase the company's head count by as much as 50 percent this year. The young founder said in an interview with Bloomberg that since there are a significant number of engineers and developers looking for work, Facebook--still flush with venture funding, and with revenues on the rise--can scoop them up.

As you may recall, Facebook had aimed to hit 1,000 employees by the end of 2008, but the market crash stalled that aim. The company currently has 1,000 employees, the Bloomberg article said.

But Zuckerberg also said he's trying to keep down costs so that the company can finally achieve profitability. Facebook has been keeping a lid on employee perks for some time now, even though it does feed its minions for free, Google-style.

"The thing I want to remind people of is we're way closer to the beginning than the end," Zuckerberg said in the Bloomberg interview, published Monday, explaining why Facebook moved to a stripped-down, concrete-walled office building when it needed a bigger headquarters. "A lot of times buildings can be a signal that you've made it. I would rather that our building feel much more like a very large garage."

Not everything he said was tinged with humility: he did confirm that he eventually hopes Facebook will have a billion users. Right now, it's over a quarter of the way there.

Last month, Twitter posted a job listing saying it was looking for someone who knew business, and now it looks like the microblogging site has found one--the first of several, it appears. Twitter has hired Kevin Thau, a veteran of tech companies Buzzwire and Openwave, as its director of mobile business development.

According to Twitter stats app Twitterholic, Thau has been using Twitter since early March of last year. He's been hired in part to handle the "crushing amount" of partnership proposals that Twitter receives. The mobile front is particularly important for Twitter, as it's the primary platform for many users. It's also been a contentious space, because it involves dealing with cell phone carriers around the world. Skyrocketing costs have forced Twitter to cut some of its international mobile numbers.

It's the first business development post that the San Francisco-based Twitter has filled. But it's currently also looking to hire a business product manager and a director of strategic partnerships. Twitter hasn't put forth a concrete business plan yet, but executives have hinted that business partnerships or corporate accounts may be part of the strategy.

Biz Stone, co-founder of microblogging service Twitter, sent out an e-mail to the site's members on Monday night. The take-home point: They're hiring.

"We're hoping to hire for a bunch of new positions," the e-mail read. "If you or someone you know wants to work at a small company with a bright future then by all means, check out our jobs page."

Twitter's jobs page doesn't give any specifics. But putting out a big "we're hiring" e-mail is an important message for a small start-up that's high on buzz and low on revenues these days. Loads of Silicon Valley once-hyped start-ups have laid off employees or instituted hiring freezes, so it's a big deal when one comes out and says it's actively seeking new employees. That said, Twitter raised a big venture round this spring, so it likely still has plenty of cash on hand.

Also in Stone's e-mail: a plug for "Company Buzz," Twitter's app on LinkedIn's platform, which lets members of the business-networking site see what Twitter members are saying about their companies.

Stone also reminded users to load up cable network Current on Tuesday night for election coverage, where live "tweets" from Twitter will be displayed onscreen. One thing the e-mail doesn't say? Whether there will be extra server power in place to keep the service up, though Stone says that Twitter's team "anticipate(s) record-breaking activity." Twitter has largely gotten past its reputation for frequent outages--let's hope it stays that way through Election night.