Bret Taylor, the Chief Technology Officer of social networking giant, Facebook is set to step down from his post soon.

Mr. Taylor is planning to start his own company in collaboration with Kevin Gibbs, an engineer at Google, he said. Meanwhile, Google confirmed that Gibbs is also leaving his job at the Mountain View company soon. The departure of Mr. Taylor comes at a time when Facebook is aiming to develop products and services to attract more developers to the site.

Mr. Taylor had joined the company in 2009 after Facebook acquired FriendFeed, a social service startup that was set up by Mr. Taylor and three other colleagues from Google. The service allowed users to post videos and updates from other sites on the Web.

"I've learned more than I ever imagined in my time at Facebook. I'm also extremely grateful for my relationship with all of the amazing people I've worked with here. I want to give a special thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. You've not only been my boss for the past three years, but my mentor and one of my closest friends," Mr. Taylor said on his Facebook page.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement that he really enjoyed working with Mr. Taylor and called him a friend and teammate. He also expressed gratitude for everything he has build for the site and said that he is proud for all the things he and his team has accomplished.