Oct 13, 2010 07:54 GMT  ·  By

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, is resigning the role she held for more than a decade to take over Google's efforts in the emerging 'location' market.

Initial reports that have been later confirmed by Google indicate that along with her new position she is also joining Google's operating committee, the senior governing body of the company.

“Marissa is moving over to an exciting new role covering geo/local, which is crucial to our users and the future of Google,” Google confirmed the move in a statement.

“Marissa has made an amazing contribution on search over the last decade, and we’re excited about her input in this new area in the decade ahead,” the company added.

Mayer is one of Google's best known faces and is one of the company's earliest employees. She was the first female engineer and has lead Google's search efforts, arguably, what the company is primarily known for, since joining.

As VP of search products and user experience, she oversaw all of the changes and new features Google Search introduced along the years, including the redesigned homepage launched last spring and the recent Google Instant.

Moving forward, location services are one of the big new markets for the web and are especially important for Google in their potential to significantly drive up ad revenue from small businesses.

Location adds context to a host of web services, especially search. The huge popularity of smartphones makes local services even more important and Google already has a big investment with its Android phones.

The company also has mobile apps for most major platforms out there which also incorporate local features.

Google launched Place Pages last year and revamped the feature earlier this year. Place Pages aim to create a database of locations and add information about every 'place' on Earth.

Google Latitude, the company's location-based service, while different and certainly not as well known as Foursquare or other popular services of its type, enjoys a rather large audience, mostly because of its tight integration with Android.

While some are reading more into the move, there's little evidence that this is anything less than a promotion. Udi Manber, VP of engineering for Web search, will take over Mayer's job though he will retain his job title.