Nick Fox is now the brand new head of Google Search, changing Prabhakar Raghavan who’s shifting into Chief Technologist position at Google. Nick Fox has been with Google since July 2003 and is somebody we’ve quoted right here for 20 years on this web site.
Prabhakar Raghavan turned the pinnacle of Google Search in 2020. Earlier than that Ben Gomes was the pinnacle in 2018, John Giannandrea changed Amit Singhal who stepped down in 2016. So Google has been going by way of heads of search since Amit Singhal ran it from November 2000.
Fact is, I feel lots of people are stunned Prabhakar Raghavan held on to the place so lengthy. I imply, with all of the DOJ leaks and lots of the unhealthy press he particularly and individually obtained alongside the way in which, some are stunned this did not occur sooner. I imply, he was coined the man who killed Google Search.
That being mentioned, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai wrote, “Prabhakar has determined it’s time to make an enormous leap in his personal profession. After 12 years main groups throughout Google, he’ll return to his laptop science roots and tackle the position of Chief Technologist, Google. On this position, he’ll associate intently with me and Google results in present technical route and management and develop our tradition of tech excellence.”
“Nick Fox, a longtime Googler and member of Prabhakar’s management staff, might be stepping as much as lead Okay&I, which incorporates our Search, Advertisements, Geo, and Commerce merchandise,” he added.
Right here is the rest of his message on this information:
Prabhakar’s management journey at Google has been exceptional, spanning Analysis, Workspace, Advertisements, and Okay&I. He led the Gmail staff in launching Sensible Reply and Sensible Compose as early examples of utilizing AI to enhance merchandise, and took Gmail and Drive previous 1 billion customers. Throughout Okay&I, Prabhakar and staff have achieved important development and innovation: from launching AI Overviews, a groundbreaking development in Search that advantages a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of customers worldwide to introducing new search modalities like Circle to Search, video understanding, and “store what you see” in Lens — all whereas enhancing core Search performance. Maps and Purchasing have remodeled with AI-driven options like immersive view and digital try-on. And in Advertisements, we’ve made actual progress with AI-powered advert codecs and streamlined marketing campaign administration, whereas persevering with to innovate with Efficiency Max to empower thousands and thousands of companies.
I’m so grateful to Prabhakar for the sturdy basis and management bench he’s constructed throughout Okay&I. That features his unbelievable senior leaders and Nick who is able to hit the bottom working in his new position as SVP of Okay&I!
Over the previous few years, Nick has been instrumental in shaping Google’s AI product roadmap and collaborating intently with Prabhakar and his management staff on Okay&I’s technique. And all through his profession, Nick has demonstrated management throughout almost each aspect of Okay&I, from Product and Design in Search and Assistant, to our Purchasing, Journey, and Funds merchandise. He was additionally a pioneering chief in Advertisements, the place he helped set up a rigorous high quality and user-focused strategy that is still key to our success. Nick has launched revolutionary shopper merchandise like Google Fi and spearheaded complicated initiatives akin to RCS messaging. I regularly flip to Nick to sort out our most difficult product questions and he constantly delivers progress with tenacity, velocity, and optimism.
Congratulations to Nick, and a heartfelt thanks to Prabhakar for his management by way of quite a few expertise shifts and for constructing a robust basis for the long run.
The Wall Avenue Journal wrote, “The shake-up comes because the Alphabet unit faces unprecedented stress on its search enterprise from the courts and artificial-intelligence merchandise akin to ChatGPT. Google’s search promoting enterprise is predicted to dip beneath a 50% market share within the U.S. subsequent yr for the primary time in additional than a decade, based on the analysis agency eMarketer.”
“He was as soon as thought-about a candidate to develop into the corporate’s subsequent CEO. Fox’s elevation now makes him a doable successor to Pichai, who can be CEO of father or mother firm Alphabet,” the WSJ added.
I suppose we are going to see the place Google goes from right here…
Discussion board dialogue at X.