Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Google Doesn’t Plan to Name New Local Head to Replace Marissa Mayer

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer won’t be directly replaced at Google, where until Monday she was VP of local, maps and location services.

Mayer’s duties will be filled by her lieutenants, according to two sources with knowledge of the organization.

Mayer’s product list included Google Maps, Google Earth, Zagat, Street View and local search for both desktop and mobile. She is handing off those responsibilities on short notice, after abruptly resigning today.

Some of the more prominent members of Mayer’s team are Jen Fitzpatrick, VP of engineering for Google+ Local; Brian McClendon, VP of engineering for Google Maps and Google Earth; and Bernardo Hernandez, director of product management and managing director at Zagat.

Mayer’s reports will now answer to Google’s SVP of commerce and local, Jeff Huber, though a broader reorganization seems likely, a source said.

Here’s Google CEO Larry Page’s statement on Mayer’s departure:

“Since arriving at Google just over 13 years ago as employee #20, Marissa has been a tireless champion of our users. She contributed to the development of our Search, Geo, and Local products. We will miss her talents at Google.”

And here’s Google Chairman Eric Schmidt:

“I worked with Marissa for many years — she’s a great product person, very innovative and a real perfectionist who always wants the best for users. Yahoo has made a good choice and I am personally very excited to see another woman become CEO of a technology company. Best wishes to Marissa and Yahoo!”

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik