Google Exec Jumps Ship to Lead Yahoo

Yahoo shocked Silicon Valley today by luring a top Google executive to lead the rudderless Internet company, the New York Times reports. Marissa Mayer, one of corporate America's most prominent women—and a rare public face for Google—agreed to become Yahoo's CEO starting tomorrow. She "had an amazing time at Google" for the past 13 years, she said, but "it was a reasonably easy decision" to lead Yahoo—"one of the best brands on the Internet."

Mayer was responsible for many popular Google products, including Google News, Google Images, Gmail, and the search homepage's clean, white look. She's now hashing out a Yahoo strategy, she says, which will leverage its strong sports, finance, and e-mail franchises. But she probably won't challenge Google's search supremacy, the Times notes. Yahoo has struggled to keep its top executives lately, with Scott Thompson quitting over apparent lies on his resume, Carol Bartz getting a quick boot, and co-founder Jerry Yang lasting just two years as CEO. (More Marissa Mayer stories.)