Nick Fox is now the new head of Google Search, replacing Prabhakar Raghavan who is moving into Chief Technologist role at Google. Nick Fox has been with Google since July 2003 and is someone we have quoted here for 20 years on this site.
Prabhakar Raghavan became the head of Google Search in 2020. Before that Ben Gomes was the head in 2018, John Giannandrea replaced Amit Singhal who stepped down in 2016. So Google has been going through heads of search since Amit Singhal ran it from November 2000.
Truth is, I think a lot of folks are surprised Prabhakar Raghavan held on to the position so long. I mean, with all the DOJ leaks and a lot of the bad press he specifically and individually received along the way, some are surprised this didn't happen sooner. I mean, he was coined the man who killed Google Search.
That being said, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai wrote, "Prabhakar has decided it’s time to make a big leap in his own career. After 12 years leading teams across Google, he’ll return to his computer science roots and take on the role of Chief Technologist, Google. In this role, he’ll partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence."
"Nick Fox, a longtime Googler and member of Prabhakar’s leadership team, will be stepping up to lead K&I, which includes our Search, Ads, Geo, and Commerce products," he added.
Here is the remainder of his message on this news:
Prabhakar's leadership journey at Google has been remarkable, spanning Research, Workspace, Ads, and K&I. He led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose as early examples of using AI to improve products, and took Gmail and Drive past 1 billion users. Across K&I, Prabhakar and team have achieved significant growth and innovation: from launching AI Overviews, a groundbreaking advancement in Search that benefits hundreds of millions of users worldwide to introducing new search modalities like Circle to Search, video understanding, and "shop what you see" in Lens — all while improving core Search functionality. Maps and Shopping have transformed with AI-driven features like immersive view and virtual try-on. And in Ads, we’ve made real progress with AI-powered ad formats and streamlined campaign management, while continuing to innovate with Performance Max to empower millions of businesses.I’m so grateful to Prabhakar for the strong foundation and leadership bench he’s built across K&I. That includes his incredible senior leaders and Nick who is ready to hit the ground running in his new role as SVP of K&I!
Over the past few years, Nick has been instrumental in shaping Google's AI product roadmap and collaborating closely with Prabhakar and his leadership team on K&I's strategy. And throughout his career, Nick has demonstrated leadership across nearly every facet of K&I, from Product and Design in Search and Assistant, to our Shopping, Travel, and Payments products. He was also a pioneering leader in Ads, where he helped establish a rigorous quality and user-focused approach that remains key to our success. Nick has launched innovative consumer products like Google Fi and spearheaded complex initiatives such as RCS messaging. I frequently turn to Nick to tackle our most challenging product questions and he consistently delivers progress with tenacity, speed, and optimism.
Congratulations to Nick, and a heartfelt thank you to Prabhakar for his leadership through numerous technology shifts and for building a strong foundation for the future.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The shake-up comes as the Alphabet unit faces unprecedented pressure on its search business from the courts and artificial-intelligence products such as ChatGPT. Google’s search advertising business is expected to dip below a 50% market share in the U.S. next year for the first time in more than a decade, according to the research firm eMarketer."
"He was once considered a candidate to become the company’s next CEO. Fox’s elevation now makes him a possible successor to Pichai, who is also CEO of parent company Alphabet," the WSJ added.
I guess we will see where Google goes from here...
Forum discussion at X.
