Since I never worked for FB or google I can only make a guess. People who are leaving for Facebook from Google (or any other company) are doing so not because they think facebook has something better to offer than Google in terms of working in interesting stuff and perhaps even offer better work environment or salary; but because facebook is the best place to work before IPO.
I think this is an excellent way to weed out people who are interested in working on interesting stuff and people who are just working for the money (not that there is anything wrong with that).
Not that to say that there are no interesting stuff to work in facebook, but there is no comparison to Google.
If I told you where I work, when I started working there, it doesn't make sense that you'll be able to derive my motivations or my character. Of course compensation is always a factor in choosing a place to work, but I am sure each individual case is so different and so complex that holding them to a greed metric is a little heavy-handed.
It isn't even a question about character here because if these people were concerned about money before everything else, many of the smartest Silicon Valley people could have had a job on Wall Street a long time ago. On Wall Street, almost 100% of the time you'll be very well off (remember how much GDP goes through that street). Wall Street will take brains anytime. If not Wall Street, FB IPO expectations haven't changed significantly in a year, these people would have moved over ages ago if they wanted a big equity cut.
There is only so much liquidity to go around with 1700+ employees and a marginally liquid market on secondmarket. For me, second market changes the game a bit because the error in valuation is potentially a lot smaller (there was a very good discussion on FB over here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1719975). Either way, I wonder the size of the equity packages involved. Even if they are large, someone like Lars is very well off and spent most of his whole life building things so I don't think he is a jump to FB for the IPO kind of guy. Choosing where to work, when to work is a complex decision and not indicative of any character most of the time.
People work for the love of the craft or for the love of the money. If you've been at Google and want more money Facebook might be a better deal before going public. Sometimes people just want to change their scenery so to speak, to do something new.
There will always be smart people for both companies to hire anyways.
I guess Facebook is 'sexier' right now with the movie and all but honestly I rely on Google way more than fb in a given day - work or leisure - and hope this doesnt mean the goog is sinking or something. On the flipside I guess they're hiring?
If you read the article, you'd see the youtube guy is not leaving:
> Mr. Kamangar will now take the chief executive title and continue to try to improve the site's advertising features and strike new content partnerships to carry well-known television shows, clips, music videos and films, in addition to enabling more people to upload homemade videos that fueled its initial growth.
edit: if you downvote please do tell why, I think I gave factual information
