Google Grabs Gosling, Father Of Java

Gosling wrote that he was "starting employment" at Google Monday, but said it was unclear in what capacity Gosling will join Google.

"I don't know what I'll be working on," Gosling wrote in a blog post announcing his new Google gig. "I expect it'll be a bit of everything, seasoned with a large dose of grumpy curmudgeon."

Gosling was a vice president and fellow at Sun Microsystems where he created the original design of the Java programming language and implemented its original compiler and virtual machine. That work earned Gosling the honor of being called the Father of Java.

Industry eyes have been trained on Gosling, who left his position Oracle-Sun in April 2010. Gosling's departure followed Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun. At the time of his departure from Oracle, Gosling hinted in a blog post that the work environment at Oracle was much different than what he experienced at Sun.

"Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," Gosling wrote at the time.

Gosling joining the Google ranks also comes as Oracle and Google are embroiled in a contentious lawsuit over Java patents. Oracle sued Google in August claiming that Google's Android mobile operating system violated Java patents and copyrights. Google denied Oracle's charges in a court filing and sought to have the patents declared invalid. In its lawsuit Oracle called Java "one of the most important technologies Oracle acquired with Sun," noting that it has attracted more than 6.5 million developers.

Gosling pointed out that he had plenty of opportunities, but Google "looks like interesting fun with huge leverage."

Gosling follows other high-profile former Sun players to be gobbled up by Google in the wake of Oracle's Sun acquisition. Last year, Google brought aboard former Sun executive and XML co-creator Tim Bray as an Android advocate. Bray, too, left Sun after the Oracle acquisition.