Google Promotes Android Boss Sundar Pichai

As Android users anxiously await next week’s release of Lollipop, the newest version of their preferred mobile OS from Google, the company has given even more responsibility to the man responsible. Sundar Pichai, Google’s head of Android and Chrome, was promoted late last week to now be in charge of “core Google Products,” a post on Re/code reports.

What does that mean? According to the post, Pichai “will now have purview over research, search, maps, Google+, commerce and ad products and infrastructure.” That means that the guy who oversaw some of the best aspects of Google – that is, software like Chrome OS, Android, related Android devices, Nest, Google X, and more – will now be steering many of the rest of the company’s important projects as well. In short, Google has named Pichai as its own Steve Jobs. Well, unless that role belongs to Larry Page or Sergei Brin…or…something.

Look, I’m losing the metaphor, but the point is that Sundar Pichai is overseeing more of Google’s many endeavors than just about anyone else. The result, hopefully, will be a closer alignment in terms of strategy, compatibility, and UI. For now, though, the promotion is more about freeing up Google co-founder Larry Page to give more attention to the “bigger picture.”

The post also points out that YouTube is still being run outside of Pichai’s purview. But then, YouTube has its own goals in terms of providing a service to content makers and content consumers. YouTube is platform agnostic, and as such don’t necessarily need to be run by Pichai in his quest to unify the overall Google experience.

As to what effect this promotion will have on Google, Android, and Chrome in the long run remains to be seen. Stay tuned.