Paul Buchheit, the man behind Gmail, FriendFeed and the famous Google motto, "Don't be evil," has just joined startup seed-funding firm Y Combinator as a partner.
In an announcement on the Y Combinator blog, Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham wrote that Buchheit is "a good friend as well as one of the world's best hackers; for years we've considered him an honorary YC partner."
Buchheit, who had previously worked at Microsoft, Intel and Sun, became a Google engineer in 1999. He was the creator and lead developer of Gmail, and he also came up with the first Google AdSense prototype.
He, along with fellow former Googlers Bret Taylor and Jim Norris, among others, launched FriendFeed in 2007. Buchheit became a Facebooker last year when the social network acquired FriendFeed.
Also joining Y Combinator today is Harj Taggar, a Y Combinator startup advisor since earlier this year.
Image courtesy of Flickr, thomashawk.