Holiday Gift Guide »

Google shakeup continues as its mapping and commerce units split apart

Categories: Google
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, March 14th, 2013 at 9:24 AM

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Google is breaking apart its mapping and commerce divisions, both of which were headed by executive Jeff Huber. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Huber will move to the Google X unit and will work with Sergey Brin on projects like Google Glass. A Google spokesperson provided the following statement about the shakeup:

“Jeff is an extraordinary executive. He just finished his first decade at Google—having worked on some of our most complicated issues like ads, apps, payments and geo—and now he is eager to work in more of a startup-like environment.”

Mapping will move over to the search team, which is led by Alan Eustace, and the commerce group will fall under the control of Susan Wojcicki’s advertising group.

These changes were part of a bigger transition that saw Andy Rubin leave the Android group and Sundar Pichai from the Chrome group take his place. Google also announced yesterday that it was killing several services including Google Reader.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]

About The Author

Kelly Hodgkins

Kelly spent the last four years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent several years as a Ph.D student in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and tribe of children. You can follow her on Twitter @kellyhodgkins.