Google has reshuffled its leadership, a move that highlights both internal changes and a complex legacy. Prabhakar Raghavan, the executive long responsible for overseeing Google’s search engine and ads business, is stepping down from his role as head of these divisions. Nick Fox, a Google veteran working with the company since 2003, will succeed Raghavan, taking control of Google’s core revenue drivers at a time of immense pressure on the company’s search business.
This change signals a new chapter for Google’s leadership as it grapples with increasing competition in artificial intelligence and a search monopoly lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. However, Raghavan’s legacy is far from straightforward, marred by accusations that his tenure marked a decline in the quality of Google’s search experience.
Prabhakar Raghavan: A Complex Legacy in Search
Raghavan’s departure from his position follows years of internal criticism and public dissatisfaction with Google’s direction under his leadership. Known for his background as a computer scientist, Raghavan took over Google’s search and ads operations in 2020 after years of leading the company’s ads division. His promotion coincided with a strategic shift that increasingly emphasized revenue generation over search quality—a move that some argue laid the foundation for the degradation of Google Search.
An article from earlier this year titled “The Man Who Killed Google Search” by Edward Zitron, points to Raghavan as a key figure in Google’s downward trajectory. Zitron describes a pivotal moment in 2019 when Google declared a “code yellow” for search revenue, meaning a full-scale crisis had been triggered due to declining query growth and advertiser dissatisfaction. Raghavan, who was then the head of ads, orchestrated the response, pushing for aggressive revenue growth strategies that ultimately prioritized monetization over user experience.
Emails uncovered in the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google reveal that Raghavan and his team initiated these changes, sidelining those who resisted. Ben Gomes, a Google veteran who helped build the search engine from the ground up, was one such opponent. Gomes voiced concerns that Google was focusing too much on growth metrics like search queries and ad revenue, sacrificing user-centric improvements to meet financial goals.
Raghavan, however, drove forward, implementing what some saw as “engagement hacking”—a tactic that manipulates users into spending more time on a site rather than genuinely enhancing the service. The culmination of these tactics, according to Zitron, led to the erosion of Google Search’s reliability, with the once-great search engine becoming bogged down by ads, spam, and SEO-optimized content that overwhelmed genuine results.
Nick Fox Takes the Reins
Amid this backdrop, Nick Fox steps in as the new head of Google’s search and ads teams. Fox’s experience within Google stretches back to 2003, where he played a crucial role in developing products like Google Fi and RCS messaging. His elevation to Raghavan’s former position positions him at the heart of Google’s ongoing battle to retain its dominance in search while addressing new challenges from AI competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Fox has been described as strategic and analytical, traits that will be necessary as he inherits the task of maintaining Google’s dominance in a rapidly shifting landscape. Under his leadership, Google will have to balance its AI ambitions with maintaining the quality of its search engine, which remains the company’s most critical product.
While Fox’s promotion is seen as part of a broader organizational shakeup, it also hints at the company’s future direction. Fox has worked closely with Raghavan for years and may bring a similar approach to balancing Google’s technological and financial objectives. However, his ability to navigate the competing interests of ad revenue and user satisfaction will be crucial to Google’s continued success.
Structural Shifts as Google Confronts AI and Legal Challenges
The leadership transition also comes alongside other organizational changes at Google. Sissie Hsaio’s team, responsible for the Gemini chatbot, will now report to Google DeepMind, the company’s premier AI research division led by Demis Hassabis. This shift aligns Google’s chatbot development with its most advanced AI research efforts, signaling the increasing importance of AI in Google’s future.
At the same time, the Google Assistant team is being moved to the company’s platforms and devices group, which oversees Android and hardware like Pixel phones. These moves suggest that Google is integrating its virtual assistant more tightly with its broader device ecosystem.
These changes occur as Google faces growing external pressure. The Department of Justice’s lawsuit, which accuses Google of monopolizing the search business, threatens to break up the company. Meanwhile, AI-driven competitors have begun to chip away at Google’s market share, with eMarketer projecting that the company’s search advertising dominance in the U.S. could drop below 50% for the first time in more than a decade.
A History of Search and Ads Tension
The tension between Google’s search and advertising teams is not new, but it has intensified in recent years. Under Raghavan’s leadership, the gap between these two divisions widened, with the ads team increasingly dictating search decisions. This shift raised concerns among search purists like Ben Gomes, who believed that Google’s founding principle of prioritizing the user experience was being eroded.
Zitron’s article details how this internal conflict came to a head in 2019 when Google’s finance and ads divisions pushed for search to meet aggressive revenue targets. Gomes resisted these demands, stating that Google was becoming too focused on money. He warned that tactics like turning off ranking improvements or introducing intrusive refinements would harm users in the long run.
Despite these warnings, Raghavan and his team pressed forward, implementing changes that some say damaged the integrity of Google Search. The rollback of previous search improvements and the introduction of new ad displays on mobile and desktop made it increasingly difficult for users to distinguish between ads and organic results, further diluting the quality of the search experience.
The Path Forward
As Fox steps into his new role, he faces the challenge of restoring confidence in Google Search while navigating the complex demands of the company’s advertising business. With the ongoing pressures from both AI competitors and legal battles, Fox’s leadership will be closely watched as Google attempts to strike a balance between innovation, user experience, and profitability.
Meanwhile, Raghavan’s move to the position of chief technologist allows him to step back from day-to-day operations and focus on guiding Google’s overall technological direction. His new role may provide him with the opportunity to reshape his legacy, but the impact of his tenure on Google’s search business will likely be felt for years to come.