On Wednesday, Google announced that Andy Rubin would leave his position as head of the Android division for an unnamed job at the company. As it turns out, that was just the start of a big shakeup in Google"s organization that is only just now coming to light
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has decided to merge the Maps and Search divisions, under the leadership of the Search head, Alan Eustace. The head of the Maps division, Jeff Huber, confirmed on his Google+ page he will still be at the company, working in the Google X research division. His post did not mention the merging of the Maps and Search teams.
In addition, The Journal reports that the commerce unit, which was also headed up by Huber, and the advertising division will also merge, under the leadership of Susan Wojcicki. The changes mean that Google now has five main divisions instead of seven (Search/Maps, Commerce/Ads, YouTube, Android and Google+).
Google also announced that several of its projects would be shut down over the next several months, including its Google Reader site. The decision has generated a lot of negative comment from its current users, and an online petition that was launched to ask Google to change its mind has generated over 66,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.
Source: Wall Street Journal | Image via Google