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Facebook Disbands Secretive Research Lab Amid Reorganization (mashable.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the re-structured dept.

Facebook has disbanded its secretive research lab, where the company developed new hardware like its Portal speakers and researched moonshot projects like brain computer interfaces. "Building 8, the division Facebook created in 2016 to house some of its most ambitious projects, has been disbanded and the projects have been redistributed to other groups within the social media company," reports Mashable. From the report: The change, which was first reported by Business Insider, marks the end of the "Building 8" brand, though the group's work will continue on. Now, thanks to BI, we know that behind the scenes Facebook has separated the Portal team into its own group, which oversees Facebook's other "unannounced hardware projects." Meanwhile, Building 8's researchers have been shuffled to Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), another new group at Facebook lead by Facebook's top VR researcher, Michael Abrash. The FRL group was created in May, around the same time Facebook announced a bigger reorganization among its top executives.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to BI that the Building 8 brand was no more, but said it continues to work on the same projects and hasn't laid off any employees as a result of the re-structuring: "Building 8 was the early name of the team building consumer hardware at Facebook. Building 8 is part of Facebook's AR/VR organization. Now that we're shipping, it's the Portal team. And Rafa Camargo is still leading the team; that has not changed. We also unified research looking at longer terms projects under one team, which became Facebook Reality Labs, which is also part of our AR/VR organization. This includes research projects like the Brain Computer Interface."

25 comments

  1. What? by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Facebook has disbanded its secretive research lab

    Okay.

    [This] marks the end of the "Building 8" brand, though the group's work will continue on. . . . the Building 8 brand was no more, but said it continues to work on the same projects

    So they really didn't disband anything, but I'm sure this will change everything, just like when Comcast started calling themselves Xfinity.

    This is just a stealth marketing piece for all of the crap Facebook is working on.

    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe there is a private Facebook group named Building 8 out there, or should we say in there? ;)

    2. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fecesbook is a "social" media company, their product is a social crap.

    3. Re:What? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Well, they were planning to change their name to something else and then use “Facebook” to refer to just those people working on the website... but another company beat them to that concept. So all that was left was the tried-and-true reshuffling of the deck chairs.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lovely. Why such a secret? Is someone ethically challenged?

    5. Re:What? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      What kind of “brand” name is Building 8 anyway? It sounds like something from 1984, a place where naughty employees are dragged off to, to be subjected to electroshock, rubber truncheons, and a cageful of face chewing rats.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    6. Re:What? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      What kind of “brand” name is Building 8 anyway?

      Kinda sorta like a brand named "Area 51".

      Hey, if the US government is a little short of cash, and might need to "shutdown -h now" . . . maybe they could consider instead merchandising some "Area 51" stuff . . . ?

      I'm sure that some folks out there would be interested in buying some "Area 51" T-shirts, pens and baseball caps made with genuine UFO alien materials . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    7. Re:What? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      "What kind of âoebrandâ name is Building 8 anyway? It sounds like something from 1984, a place where naughty employees are dragged off to, to be subjected to electroshock, rubber truncheons, and a cageful of face chewing rats."

      All true, but at least there is cake.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. EVERYTHING they do si for Ads. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    facebook, Google, Yahoo!, LinkedIN, ...all of their R&D is to find ways to sells more ads, get more information about us, in order to pimp our data out.

    They offer no value to humanity. I do quite well without ANY of those companies and then some.

    1. Re:EVERYTHING they do si for Ads. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now excuse me while I drink some spiced rum, Captain.

  3. Social media company? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Building 8, the division Facebook created in 2016 to house some of its most ambitious projects, has been disbanded and the projects have been redistributed to other groups within the social media company," reports Mashable.

    Someone needs to contact Mashable and remind them that Facebook is an advertising company, not a social media company.

    "Senator, we run ads." - Mark Zuckerberg

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Social media company? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      "Senator, we run ads." - Mark Zuckerberg

      "Senator, our ads run you!" - Mark Zuckerberg

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:Social media company? by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      Is there a difference?

  4. Uh huh... comme 'Operation Treadstone' by The+Bloooated · · Score: 0

    "They don't make mistakes. They don't do random. There's always an objective, always a target." Nicky Parsons

  5. Zuckerberg should be in prison by WCMI92 · · Score: 2

    Where he will not last 5 seconds.

    --
    Corporatism != Free Market
    1. Re:Zuckerberg should be in prison by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      Many mob bosses do just fine in prison - even continue to run their enterprises from there. And Zuck’s got the cash to buy up every guard and warden.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Why is slashdot giving them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Free Advertising?

    If they are an advertising company they should be paying for this space :D

  8. Someone should sue about their chat app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That won't let you turn it off, and misleads others into thinking you actually use the fucking thing.

    I won't. ever. use. that. fucking. chat. ever.

    However friends apparently leave me messages on it, which has caused some issues. The practice of not being able to remove youself from being able to be contacted via their chat needs to be brought into the spotlight, and they need to get sued because of it.

  9. Just shut the whole thing down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean the whole of Facebook.
    It has become a nest of vipers and is nothing more than an ad slinging data gathering boil on society.
    Oh, and Jail Zuck for aiding a good number of suicides directly linked to activity on their platform

  10. No news by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    "Stuff that matters", really?

  11. Reorganization will be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hopefully they will now be able to focus more on their election meddling campaigns worldwide.

  12. Secretive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this secretive research lab the same place where all the bodies are stored?

  13. BCI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Engineers were mysteriously disappearing.