Googlers, living the sweet life. (flickr.com/joelogon)

New York loves Google and Google--if that locally themed office decor is any indication--loves New York. But from Business Insider comes a rumor that makes us wonder whether the lovey-doveyness will last: A former Googler with sources inside the company tells the site that Google is relocating a number of product marketing jobs to Mountain View.

At the mere mention of such a move, startup CEOs all over the city suddenly perked up their ears, sensing a great disturbance in the force.

Business Insider says:

This source, a former Googler still in touch with old colleagues, says that Google's CMO, Lorraine Twohill, has decided the company can be more flexible if more of its marketing people are based in Mountain View, and not in satellite offices.

This source says that as many as a hundred marketing managers were given a quarter to either find new jobs in New York or relocate to California.

As anyone who's ever tried to coordinate with coworkers in a distant office will no doubt agree, such a strategic move probably makes a good deal of sense--if only for the sake of avoiding seething resentment at the water cooler.  However, as Business Insider also points out, Google shifting talent to the West Coast would be a disappointment for local startups, who stand to lose out on a valuable stream of poachables. (Though the next couple of weeks might be a good opportunity to start sending emails to anyone you want to recruit.)

However, you'll probably want to take this one with a grain of salt: Even if it is true, it might not be wholly representative of any bigger trends. God knows they've still got plenty of openings on the company's New York jobs page. And based on our rudimentary knowledge of legal procedure (admittedly gleaned largely from Law and Order episodes), testimony from "a former Googler still in touch with old colleagues" counts as hearsay and is therefore inadmissible in all but the most kangaroo of courts.

Nonetheless, the move does get interesting when you put it in the context of Google's cozy relationship with CornellNYC. The company's New York office is housing the embryonic school until the Roosevelt Island campus is habitable, and chairman Eric Schmidt is helping mold the curriculum. Google is hovering around the project like poorly trained beagles who think they hear the rattle of the kibble bag.

If Google starts exporting local engineers to Mountain View, the bloom, as they say, will be off the rose.

Note the inspiration boards. (Photo: Polyvore)

The latest West Coast outfit to open up an outpost here in the chaotic environs of New York City: social commerce platform Polyvore. Their new neighborhood? Naturally it's Soho, that downtown anthill swarming with fashionistas. While the company has had employees stationed here for years, the new office finally gives them a proper home.

Polyvore, which makes it easy for members to create those inspiration board-like collages so beloved by fashion bloggers and also to purchase whatever happens to be featured in those collages, just topped 17 million uniques per month. Over the last year the company has been working more closely with brands, including hosting its first fashion show in February, featuring FIT alums.

Cofounder Pasha Sadri told Betabeat via email that, "Being in close proximity to the fashion powerhouses of New York was a natural next step" for the company.

However, don't make the mistake of thinking they're uprooting their technical team just yet. "Being in New York will hopefully allow us to lay down our roots and further increase our participation in the fashion industry," Mr. Sadri told us, adding that the office will be a "hub for advertising sales and partnerships with the fashion industry." He expects to hire a Vice President of Sales, who will be based here.

"Many of the world's greatest brands are based in New York, but a lot of the innovation in advertising and marketing is happening in Silicon Valley," Mr. Sadri said. "Polyvore's approach of combining social commerce and advertising is unique and we're excited to share it with New York."

At the moment the company has eight New York employees, but the company is growing fast enough that number is likely to increase.

The company even got an official hello from one-man tech welcome-wagon, Mayor Bloomberg. Tucked into Polyvore's announcement was this bit from Hizzoner:

"By opening an office here, Polyvore is joining the growing group of tech companies who recognize that the benefits of being in New York City are irresistible, regardless of where a startup began."

Hear that, everyone on the West Coast? New York will have even those companies that aren't locally grown.

Polyvore's investors include Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners, DAG Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and Vivi Nevo.

A gesture for Mr. Schmidt? (Photo: Wikipedia)

Wikipedia is bleeding admins. Why? The vetting process for becoming one "is basically a hazing ritual at this point." [The Atlantic]

Poor Microsoft. The unveiling of its newest Office suite yesterday was totally overshadowed by Yahoo's Marissa Mayer coup. We think we can hear Steve Ballmer throwing chairs from here. [Microsoft]

At a Fortune conference in Aspen, Peter Thiel called Eric Schmidt Google's "minister of propaganda." Fight! Fight! Fight! [Fortune]

LinkedIn got a much-needed UI makeover, and it looks a hell of a lot like Google+. [LinkedIn Blog]

No one knows what iCloud is. [Buzzfeed]

Oh good, another Hacker News Alley vs. Valley flamewar. [Hacker News]

Mr. Systrom (Twitter.com)

We hate to stir up the Alley-versus-Valley animus too early in the morning, but upon reading this New York Times history of Instagram, well, we can’t help wading right in. And that's because the company's trajectory was a direct beneficiary of the West Coast's fratty atmosphere:

"The extraordinary success of Instagram is a tale about the culture of the Bay Area tech scene, driven by a tightly woven web of entrepreneurs and investors who nurture one another’s projects with money, advice and introductions to the right people. By and large, it is a network of young men, many who attended Stanford and had the attention of the world’s biggest venture capitalists before they even left campus."

Before Kevin Systrom ever struck out on his own, he was already plugged into a network that could help him: He knew former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo (who’d provide technical assistance) from a Stanford frat party, he’d met Jack Dorsey (an important early user) through a Twitter internship, and he was introduced to VC Marc Andreessen (an early investor) by a Google coworker. As far as making a splash at launch goes, that sounds a hell of a lot easier than even the most spectacularly successful NYTM demo.

Maybe Mayor Bloomberg might want to start hosting the occasional kegger? Just a thought.