Marissa Mayer’s On The Move

She has been called hypercompetitive, the queen of the search-o-sphere, and one of the hottest geek girls on the planet. Now, bloggers and tech magazines can add another title to the list: member of Google’s operating committee.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it is. Only the top of the top of upper management for Google gets put on their operating committee, and Marissa Mayer is in.

Google Inc.’s vice president of search products has helped to take the most profitable product that Google has ever created to the stratosphere. According to Bloomberg, her successful run will switch to another department. Mayer is moving on to the next hot button on Google’s hitlist of online dominating markets as when she begins overseeing location and local services.

Since joining the team in 1999 as the first female engineer, Mayer moved up in the ranks quickly and has overseen over 100 search product rollouts in that time. She will be replaced by Udi Manber, vice president of engineering for Web search.

This move signifies Google’s desire to expand their profit centers beyond Adwords, their $20 billion revenue hog that accounts for over 90% of their profits. Mayer’s success both in product development as well as in front of the camera discussing and promoting products has been vital to search. Moving her is a move that says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it unless you have other things that are broken and you want your best person on it.”

Local and location based search has emerged over the last 3 years as a potential goldmine for both advertisers and their venues for advertising. As society pulls its focus away from global and more towards finding those things within driving distance, the segment has become a primary battleground for players large and small.

Companies such as Foursquare have demonstrated success with location-based campaigns as well, sparking a tremendous interest in getting the customers who are close by to visit brick-and-mortar retail locations. Mobile devices are becoming smarter. Potential customers are becoming more savvy. It’s natural to think that Google would want to corner the market.

It’s also natural to think that they would put a proven factor in place to see it through.