Google Ups Father Of Android To Senior VP In Executive Shakeup

Andy Rubin, the man who shepherded Android into the powerhouse OS it is today has been promoted to Senior Vice President for Google. The move came as Larry Page began to streamline the executive structure to make it leaner, meaner, and thinking more like the start-up it began as. Rubin, made headlines recently by dispelling rumors that Android would be getting locked down as an OS, stating that Google is committed to Android as an open source platform. And Rubin's promotion to one of seven senior vice presidents reporting directly to Page means that Google's commitment to Android is at the heart of their corporate governance right behind search.

The promotions, made by Page this week, moves engineers at the head of the company, which Page hopes will streamline communication and help spark Google, which has been plateaued of late. The promotions came from Engineering, where Rubin had been developing Android and turning it into a serious competitor to Apple's iOS, YouTube – headed by Salar Kamangar, Chrome Browser VP, and Sundar Pichai – in charge of Google's Social Networking initiatives. The other Senior VPs include advertising lead Susan Wojcicki; Jeff Huber, an engineering executive; and Alan Eustace, who led engineering and research, who will head the search division. Of the seven VPs, five are software engineers, signaling that Page is wanting to concentrate of innovation.

But that's not all. In a move that is sure to catch the eye of execs over at Facebook and Twitter, Page has also tied 25% of performance bonuses to the success of Google's social networking projects. The plan is to head off Facebook's efforts to get the upper hand in ad dollars by adding a social "layer" atop Google's products, including Web search, Picasa and YouTube, And while the social aspect is the rage for users who spend a lot of time online, the concern over privacy has also been a challenge to Facebook and other companies. Google's reach echo's the words of former CEO Eric Schmidt who said that people should get over their worries about privacy. Should Google create a social link to all their products, it'll be interesting to see if privacy is protected, or if the assumption is that users will have to "get over it."

[Via Android Community]