Google search and advertising chief leaves as regulatory pressure mounts

The news: Google’s head of search and advertising, Prabhakar Raghavan, will step down from his role at the helm of the company’s most lucrative department, per The Wall Street Journal.

Raghavan will remain at Google as the company’s chief technologist, working alongside CEO Sundar Pichai. Longtime Google search executive Nick Fox will take Raghavan’s former role. Raghavan has been at the helm of ads and commerce since 2018 and became Google’s search chief in 2020.

Notable timing: Google search and advertising, the company’s chief revenue generators, are facing their most intense waves of regulatory scrutiny yet.