Google's Marissa Mayer Named Yahoo CEO

Google's employee No. 20 has been named the CEO of Yahoo after an extended stay (13 years!) at the former company. She made a name for herself as head of location and local services at Google most recently, this including Google Maps and the managing of over 1,000 product managers. She's known for being responsible for the look and feel of the most famous Google web-based products still running strong, that being Google Images, Google News, Gmail in its newest iteration, and the white and completely unadorned homepage of Google for search.

Mayer up until recently sat in the circle of senior executives near Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and has let it be known that "it was a reasonably easy decision" to leave Google and take a position of CEO with Yahoo, "one of the best brands on the Internet." She also let it be known that she's hoping "to get focused on creating a really great user experience" and that to make sure Yahoo continues to attract top talent, as "talent is what drives technology companies," after all.

Below: Marissa Mayer speaks for the 2011 Computer History Museum on why she joined Google in the first place:

Just this April, Mayer was also tapped to join the board of Wal-Mart, a board which is made up of 16 appointees and representing Mayer's first seat at a public company. Mayer also previously headed up Google's search business. Mayer has stated that she "had an amazing time at Google" but that after 13 years she's ready to move on up. Stay tuned as Mayer's career continues to blow up.

[via NYTimes]