14 DAY TRIAL // It's no mystery that Google underwent an internal reorganization as soon as Larry Page took over as CEO. The executive hierarchy was shuffled and one of the changes that didn't surface until now is that the search group has been renamed the "knowledge group."
It may be just a cosmetic change, but it does indicate that Google is thinking beyond the simple search and wants to make it clear that its search engine is more about disseminating knowledge.
Google actually announced the name change in a SEC filling, indirectly, in which it disclosed its new exec structure. In it, Google reveals the new head of Knowledge. No one realized that the Knowledge group didn't exist prior to this though.
"Effective as of April 13, 2011, and in connection with a management reorganization, Alan Eustace, Google’s Senior Vice President, Engineering & Research, became Google’s Senior Vice President, Knowledge," Google explained at the time.
Alan Eustace now effectively leads all search efforts for the company and he reports directly to Larry Page, but he also has a couple of people reporting to him.
Until a few months ago, Marissa Mayer, led the search team, but she moved to take over everything having to do with location and location services at Google.
She was replaced by Udi Manber, who was VP of engineering for search. It didn't last long though, Alan Eustace now runs Knowledge, the former search group, with Mandber reporting to him and taking care of the 'knowledge' part.
Amit Singhal, also reports directly to Eustace and handles search quality, anything having to do with ranking and removing poor quality results, as TechCrunch found out.
Google is now organized internally into seven distinct groups, led by one person reporting to Larry Page, Knowledge led by Alan Eustace, Local and commerce by Jeff Huber, Advertising by Susan Wojcicki, Android by Andy Rubin, YouTube by Salar Kamangar, Social by Vic Gundotra and Chrome by Sundar Pinchai.