Gokul Rajaram, apparently known internally at Google as one of the “godfathers of AdSense,” is leaving the company to pursue his own entrepreneurial projects and writing.

Fortune paraphrases Rajaram’s motives for departing:

He said he misses working on a small team and he hopes to recreate the startup environment when he launches his own company.

Rajaram left on very good terms with Google, but is one of a number of high-profile employees who have left the company in recent months to go out on their own or start new companies or join others. See our Google Employee archives for examples of such departures.

Why, SEL’s own Vanessa Fox falls into that camp. The allure, mystery, and power of being on the SEL staff is definitely a temptation for anyone.

Also see Profile Of Susan Wojcicki: Mother Of AdSense and Did Wojcicki Create AdSense? for some more background on the birth of AdSense.

Related Topics: Google: Employees

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling