My time at AdMob is coming to an end. It feels like it was yesterday that it was just Omar, Russell, and I listening to people say over and over that “the established ad networks are going to crush you before you can make a difference.” Now we’ve grown to gradually take over almost the whole floor of the building we’re in (a room at a time, taking large chunks of dividing walls out in the process) and I can’t read more than two mobile stories from my feed reader without at least one of them being about mobile advertising. How’s that for a staggering success?

But now that we’ve succeeded in the initial battle, life at AdMob is changing. It’s no longer the kind of place where the fast and loose brand of programmerizing I practice should be the norm. And the challenges in front of the company are no longer related to proving that the model works and the ecosystem can support it, but rather that they can hold onto and grow their lead as the number one mobile advertising network. A great challenge to be placed in front of, but not really one that exactly matches up with my disposition and role in the world of mobility overall. So it’s time for me to step aside and let the AdMob engineering crew evolve. I wish the folks at AdMob the best of luck! It’s a fantastic service backed by a great team, and when the monetization question comes up during my next adventure AdMob is going to be the first place I turn.

So now comes the question of which way to turn to find the raggedy edge of mobile? I like somewhat unique work environments. Three parts programming, two parts white knuckled thrill ride, two parts scaling issues. Seems like there’s still a ton of stuff that could be done in consumer mobile services. As far as mobile data services have come in the last year, we’re still really at just the start. The interest is out there, but people need to provide the right services via the right channels to keep the growth going. Seems like that would be really difficult to do right, so it’s got my attention. The hunt is officially on!