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Google gains more VR personnel as Vine head Jason Toff leaves Twitter

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Just a couple of days ago we told you that Scott Broock from Joust joined Google as YouTube’s “VR Evangelist,” and now it appears the Mountain View company has nabbed even more personnel to help push its virtual reality efforts forward. Jason Toff, general manager of Vine and director of product at Twitter, announced that he has joined Google to “work on VR.” It’s not yet clear exactly what his role will be, though…

“Personal update! I’m joining Google to work on VR. So much exciting potential there,” Toff posted on his Twitter account Sunday evening. Interestingly enough, Toff worked at Google between 2008 and 2014. He was on the Chrome, Voice, and Gmail teams before becoming a Project Manager at YouTube for three years. Now he’s back at Google, and if he’s going to the same place as Broock, he’s back at YouTube.

“YouTube presses play on virtual reality” was the title of a post from YouTube’s blog in November last year, and indeed it has. That was when YouTube officially launched VR video on the service, as well as brought Google Cardboard support to the YouTube app. Now, with both Toff and Broock on board, it seems Google is taking VR even more seriously. That’s probably a good thing considering increasing competition from Facebook’s Oculus, as well as HTC and its Vive platform.

Clay Bavor, VP of product management, recently had Google apps dropped from his responsibilities, with those now under the supervision of former VMWare founder and SVP Diane Greene (who only recently joined the company alongside Google’s acquisition of Greene’s startup bebop).

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Avatar for Stephen Hall Stephen Hall

Stephen is Growth Director at 9to5. If you want to get in touch, follow me on Twitter. Or, email at stephen (at) 9to5mac (dot) com, or an encrypted email at hallstephenj (at) protonmail (dot) com.