Ev Williams, founder of Pyra Labs and the Blogger technology now part of the Googlopoly, has decided that is time for something really different:

Ev Williams

[from evhead: Next?]

Yes, I'm leaving my baby (or is it an adolescent by now?), in the hands of an awesome team we've compiled over the last few years. And I'm taking some time off to think. And...who knows?

Gosh, what else to say about that?

Necessarily, I must express that it's been an amazing, thrilling, life-changing, difficult, rewarding, surprising, and lucky ride I've been on. And "life-changing" is such an understatement. As I said on Blogger's fifth birthday, for doing the "same thing" for five years, it's amazing how drastically my life has changed. Not just my life, but me. I'm just a simple farm boy from Nebraska, after all.

As I prepare to take off my "head Blogger guy" hat, which seems permanently sealed to my scalp by now, I need to give a huge thanks to the people who've made the last few years what they were. I'd name names, but I'd never get to the end of the list, so, in general categories: The original Pyra team, the current Blogger team, and those who helped me out in-between, my investors and advisors (formal an in-), all the awesome Blogger users and supporters, the whole blogging community -- developers, competitors, and drivers of the vision -- and, of course, the great folks at Google. Not to mention my friends and family who witnessed and helped many a stressed-out Ev (see picture).

Thanks!