Google announced some executive changes last night with Liz Reid named the new head of Google Search. Pandu Nayak stepped down as leader of search quality and ranking. Cathy Edwards stepped down as leader of Google Apps, Google News, Google Discover and other ecosystem efforts. Finally, Cheenu Venkatachary has stepped up to lead our quality and ranking teams, replacing Pandu Nayak.
Liz Reid has been leading core search experiences for the past few years. He now leads all of Search, still reporting to Prabhakar Raghavan, who replaced Ben Gomes in 2020. Prabhakar Raghavan leads all of Google Search, not just basic search, but also Knowledge & Information (K&I), which includes a number of different areas including Ads, Assistant & Gemini, Geo, Commerce and more.
Here is what Liz posted LinkedIn:
Today I’m taking on a new role at the helm of search and I’m very honored by the opportunity to shape the future of this important product.
I joined Google in 2003 as one of the first engineers to build Google Local, which laid the foundation for the local information you find today in Google Search and Maps. In my early days, I focused on solving the technical challenges of displaying accurate and high-quality local information in our products. We may take this for granted now, but back then it wasn’t that easy to find a great local pastry shop near you in an unfamiliar city.
People trust Google Search to give them accurate answers and to provide the best links to explore on the web. And it’s an exciting time for search. We’re seeing positive growth in search queries across all of our top markets. People’s information needs continue to grow, so we’ll continue to evolve and improve Search: earlier this month we updated our spam policies and classification systems to significantly improve quality. We’re helping people search in whole new ways, whether it’s searching what they see with Lens or what they type with Circle to Search. And we’re testing AI-powered overviews with Search Generative Experience (SGE).
In fact, people have already issued billions of queries with SGE since we introduced it as a feature in Search Labs last year. We’ve had incredibly positive feedback about the combination of quick responses and the ability to dig deeper into the web. With SGE, we can address a wider range of information needs and answer new types of questions, including more complex questions such as comparisons or longer queries. More coming soon!
I’m incredibly grateful to work with a great team at Google who work tirelessly to improve and evolve search. As I move into this new role, I can’t wait to continue our mission, helping people everywhere find answers to even their toughest questions.
Here’s the statement Google sent me:
We’re pleased to share that we’re unifying the search organization under the leadership of Liz Reid, a well-respected and well-respected leader at Google with deep technical and product knowledge. We’ve got a big push in search, with recent improvements to search quality, new ways to search like Circle to Search, and features that use generic AI to help us with even more complex questions. For example, SGE, still only a Search Labs feature, has already been used for billions of queries. We are delighted to bring our search teams together under your leadership.
Pandu Nayak is staying with Google, but moving to what I believe is a less hectic role. He is becoming Chief Scientist at Search. In this new role he continues to advise and focus on the technical challenges of Google Search. Pandu will continue to be deeply involved in our broader efforts around content understanding, ranking, and exploring how new AI technologies can improve Google Search, Google told me. We’ve written a lot about Pandu Nayak on this site, he’s had an incredible influence over the years on Google Search, specifically basic search.
Cathy Edwards, who I interviewed for SMX at SGE, is moving back home to Australia to be closer to her family. Cathy Edwards has had an incredibly successful and impressive career, having created early hits that were acquired by Apple and then Google. Apple acquired his company called Chomp in 2012. He will move to the Knowledge and Information (K&I) Long-Term Betting team, where they will help incubate new product ideas in collaboration with K&I leaders. It suits his early career.
Cheenu Venkatachary will step up to lead Google Search’s Quality and Ranking teams. Venkatachary worked at Google from November 2009 to December 2014. He then co-founded Laserlike in July 2015, which was acquired by Apple in 2018. He then left Apple to return to Google as vice president of engineering in October 2022, then promoted to lead Google Search quality and ranking in March 2024.
So there you have it: these are the executive changes affecting Google Search right now.
Here are some of the SEO reactions to this news so far:
great news Liz Reid will be Google’s head of search. Pandu resigns and becomes Chief Research Scientist. https://t.co/NoGtV3FlQo
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 19, 2024
“Put a woman in charge” – how I hope the conversation went 😂😂😂
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) March 19, 2024
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ we will see what this change will bring. https://t.co/BAEtnguLOb
— Gianluca Fiorelli (@gfiorelli1) March 19, 2024
Thanks Barry, this is the best news I’ve heard since September! I hope this happens to the rest of the team.
– hanil Hanil (@hanil6323) March 19, 2024
Well, more exciting changes at Google!
Liz Reid replaces Pandu Nayak as Head of Search Quality.
Pandu Nayak is now “Chief Research Scientist”.
Cheenu Venkatachary will lead the search ranking and quality teams https://t.co/EWcMXmVW5U
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) March 19, 2024
Discussion in the forum a LinkedIn.
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