Blind Study Finds YP Local Results Beat Google, Bing, Yahoo
Mar 7, 2013 at 11:19am ET by Greg Sterling
Crowdflower reported that in November 2012, YP search results “were found more relevant compared to Bing local, Google Maps, and Yahoo! Local. Users were satisfied with YP.com search results 86% of the time, compared with 83% for Google Maps, 82% for Yahoo! Local, and 74% for Bing local.”
The Wallstreet Journal reports significant shake-ups at Google
In reshaping his leadership circle this week, Google Inc. GOOG -0.88% Chief Executive Larry Page is weeding out perceived inefficiencies and a lack of cohesion among some of the Internet company's core product groups.
Mr. Page on Wednesday combined the team running Google's Chrome Web browser and computer-operating software with that of the Android mobile-operating software, as Android chief Andy Rubin moves to a new unspecified role at the company. Sundar Pichai, who ran the Chrome group, will take over the combined unit.
At the same time, Mr. Page is separating the company's mapping-and-commerce unit. Google executive Jeff Huber, who led that group, will join Google X, which currently is overseen by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and works on projects such as self-driving car technology and the Google Glass wearable computing device.
On the same day that Google CEO Larry Page was announcing a major change involving the company’s Android and Chrome business units, he also moved forward more quietly on another reorganization involving Google’s mapping and commerce operations. The moves, said people familiar with the Mountain View, Calif., company, are part of Mr. Page's stated goal to improve the pace of "execution" at the Internet behemoth and to create "one consistent, beautiful and simple Google experience" that unites all of its services for the benefit of people who use them.
Mr. Rubin's departure from Android comes as he and other Google executives are worried about the growing might of Samsung, which has grabbed an increasing share of the market for Android-powered devices, said people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Rubin and others at Google have expressed concerned that if Samsung's share continues to grow, it could extract monetary or other concessions from Google or create its own "forked" version of Android to power devices that wouldn't come with all of Google's apps preinstalled, these people said.
Manufacturers shipped 497 million Android-powered smartphones last year, or 70% of the global smartphone market, up from 246 million in 2011, or 49% of the market, according to IDC. Apple shipped 136 million iPhones last year, or 19% of the market, up from 93 million in 2011, which also accounted for 19% of the market.
Android's rise has also meant Google's revenue-generating Web-search engine, YouTube video service and other apps are preinstalled on 750 million devices made by 60 manufacturers world-wide. Google said last year it was on pace to make $8 billion annually from mobile revenue.
Mr. Rubin tried to run the Android unit like a startup, keeping it somewhat independent from the rest of Google and purposely keeping its headcount low, said people familiar with the matter. That sometimes led to conflicts with other Google units that tried to get their products to be preinstalled on Android devices or be more tightly integrated with the software, these people said.
With the separation of Google's mapping and commerce unit, mapping products, which many Web users access via the Google search engine, will become part of the company's search team, also known as "knowledge." Alan Eustace, a L-Team member is to lead the newly amalgamated search and mapping team.
A version of this article appeared March 15, 2013, on page B4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Page Shakes Up Google Leadership Team Further.
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