Google has replaced its Search team leader

Google’s search team is getting a new boss. Prabhakar Raghavan, who’s been in charge for a long time, is stepping down. Nick Fox, another Google veteran, will take over. The leadership shuffle comes as part of Google’s push to reorganize around AI, but the timing feels a bit telling. Search, once Google’s crown jewel, has been slipping in recent years, not to mention threats of regulatory action and political backlash.

Nick Fox will now have to steer the ship at a tricky time. Prabhakar Raghavan, who has been with Google for over a decade, will now serve as Chief Technologist, focusing on technical strategy. Fox has been deeply involved in several Google products, including Ads, Search, and Assistant, but whether he can address the mounting criticisms remains to be seen.

Google Search isn’t what it used to be, and people are noticing. Ads are everywhere, making it hard to find actual information, and constant algorithm updates seem to favor big businesses, leaving smaller sites struggling. AI-generated summaries have also caused headaches, with users pointing out inaccuracies and publishers losing valuable traffic. Influencers like Mrwhosetheboss have even called the platform “borderline broken.” For many, Search feels less reliable and more frustrating by the day.

In fact, former U.S. President Donald Trump recently threatened to “do something” about Google if re-elected, accusing it of only showing “bad stories” in Search. This adds fuel to ongoing discussions about regulating or even breaking up the tech giant. Google is also facing an antitrust case, with regulators scrutinizing whether its dominance in search is stifling competition.

Recently, Epic Games also won its battle against Google, forcing it to start opening up its Play Store. However, Google was quick to appeal the decision and the judge will hear Google’s motion today. But it’s not just the US where the company is in hot waters. It even lost a massive EUR 2.4 billion (roughly $2.6 billion) antitrust case in Europe for favoring its own shopping service over others.

Some critics even took to X to celebrate this new change-up, claiming that Raghavan is responsible for the downward spiral of Google Search.

Fox has worked on several major Google projects, including the launch of Google Fi and AI features for Search and Ads. But turning Search around won’t be easy. The platform has become too focused on profit, with some comparing its decline to Yahoo’s downfall years ago.

Whether Fox can course-correct or not remains to be seen. For now, users will have to hope that the leadership change isn’t just a reshuffle, but a real attempt to make Search better again. While the future of Google Search remains to be seen, this announcement makes it clear that we’ll be seeing a lot of AI stuff.

Hopefully, this path doesn’t lead the company down a dark road of stealing content from publishers. For instance, Google was spotted testing a new Quick View feature that has the potential to decimate food recipe blogs. If this experiment is allowed to continue, who’s to say which industry Google will target next? We will just have to wait and see if this leadership change is for the better or worse…