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Tag: Susan Wojcicki

  • YouTube Is Ending Overlay Ads

    YouTube Is Ending Overlay Ads

    YouTube is ending its overlay ad format, with April 6th slated as its termination date.

    The company made the announcement in a blog post:

    Starting on April 6th, 2023, the “Overlay ads” ad format will no longer appear on YouTube to help improve the viewer experience and shift engagement to higher performing ad formats on desktop and mobile devices. Overlay ads are a legacy ad format that only served on desktop and are disruptive for viewers. We expect to see limited impact for most Creators as engagement shifts to other ad formats.

    As the company highlights, this particular ad format only appeared on the desktop, so the overall impact should be relatively minor.

    YouTube recently had a CEO changeover, with long-time CEO Susan Wojcicki resigning to focus on “family, health, and personal projects” she is passionate about. Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, is taking over as the company’s new CEO.

    While there’s nothing to suggest that the change of CEO is behind the ad format decision, it wouldn’t necessarily be surprising. It’s not uncommon for companies to make changes under new leadership, and it could be that trimming an under-used format is Mohan’s first move.

  • YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki, Big Tech’s Last Female CEO, Resigns

    YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki, Big Tech’s Last Female CEO, Resigns

    YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has sent an email to employees informing them that she is resigning as head of the company.

    Wojcicki joined Google twenty-five years ago, holding a number of roles within the company. The last nine years she has served as CEO of YouTube. In her email to employees, Wojcicki said she looks forward to the next chapter of her life:

    Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.

    Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, will be taking over as head of the company. Wojcicki says she will support Mohan during the transition, and then take an advisory role across the company:

    As for me, in the short term, I plan to support Neal and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some YouTube teams, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. In the longer term, I’ve agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies. It’s an incredibly important time for Google—it reminds me of the early days—incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.

    Susan Wojcicki was the only woman at the top of a Big Tech company. Her presence, as well as the perspective she brought, is sure to be missed

  • Google Strikes Deal to Bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV

    Google Strikes Deal to Bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV

    Google has beat out its rivals to secure a deal with the NFL to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Premium.

    Amazon, Apple, and Google were all in the running to secure NFL Sunday Ticket, beginning with the 2023 season. Apple was considered to be a frontrunner before backing out of the negotiations.

    Google has now secured a multi-year deal with the NFL to bring the programming to both YouTube TV and YouTube Premium.

    “We’re excited to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels and usher in a new era of how fans across the United States access, watch and follow the NFL,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this strategic partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans.”

    “YouTube has long been a home for football fans, whether they’re streaming live games, keeping up with their home team, or watching the best plays in highlights,” said Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. “Through this expanded partnership with the NFL, viewers will now also be able to experience the game they love in compelling and innovative ways through YouTube TV or YouTube Primetime Channels. We’re excited to continue our work with the NFL to make YouTube a great place for sports lovers everywhere.”

  • YouTube CEO Promotes Free Speech After Removing Russian App

    YouTube CEO Promotes Free Speech After Removing Russian App

    YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki promoted the company’s support of free speech in Russia — after the company removed a free speech app in Russia.

    Google and Apple found themselves in a firestorm of controversy after removing Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s “Smart Voting” app. Privacy critics, free speech proponents and politicians condemned the companies’ actions.

    Wojcicki is hitting back, saying free speech in Russia is still part of the company’s core values.

    “But when we work with governments, there are many things that we have to take in consideration, whether it’s local laws or what’s happening on the ground,” Wojcicki told Bloomberg Television. “So there’s always going to be multiple considerations.”

    Interestingly, despite Google at one time being willing to pull out of China over censorship concerns, the company doesn’t see that happening in Russia — at least not now.

    “I think we really want to make sure that we’re working and serving audiences as much as we possibly can,” Wojcicki continued. “And if it comes to a point where there’s an issue with the government, we’ll do our best always to work that out.”

  • Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow and Oprah Winfrey To Be Honored In ”Power of Women’ Event

    Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow and Oprah Winfrey are set to be honored at the upcoming Variety Power Of Women Event, which celebrates the entertainment industry’s most inspiring and charitable females.

    Actress Anna Kendrick and YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki will also be among the honorees at the ceremony set for Oct. 9 in Beverly Hills.

    “The women we are honouring this year are the perfect embodiment of the Power of Women initiative,” said Variety publisher Michelle Sobrino-Stearns.

    “We salute Salma Hayek Pinault, Anna Kendrick, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki for their incredible philanthropic work and their personal commitment to fostering change.”

    According to Variety, Hayek, 49, is being recognised for co-founding women’s rights initiative Chime for Change.

    Paltrow, 42, will be honored for her work with food charity LA Kitchen and Kendrick, 30, for her support of the youth suicide prevention group, The Trevor Project.

    Winfrey, 61, is known for nurturing girls at her South African school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.

    Finally, Wojcicki will be recognized for her work with literacy and equal rights group Room to Read.

  • Google’s Susan Wojcicki Joins Salesforce Board

    Google’s Susan Wojcicki Joins Salesforce Board

    Salesforce announced it has appointed YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki to its Board of Directors. Her role went into effect on December 5, and increases the board size to 11 members.

    “We are delighted that Susan has joined our Board of Directors,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “Susan is an extraordinary executive who has been instrumental in helping to build the world’s largest consumer cloud company, where scale, reliability and security are of critical importance. Her experience will make her an outstanding addition to our board.”

    “Salesforce has revolutionized enterprise software and has an amazing culture of innovation,” said Wojcicki. “I’m very excited to be joining the Salesforce Board of Directors.”

    The full board is now as follows: Marc Benioff, Salesforce chairman and CEO; Keith Block, Salesforce vice chairman and president; Craig Conway, former CEO of PeopleSoft; Alan Hassenfeld, former chairman and CEO of Hasbro; General Colin Powell, retired four star general in the U.S. Army and former U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Sanford Robertson, principal of Francisco Partners; John Roos, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan; Lawrence Tomlinson, former senior vice president and treasurer of Hewlett-Packard; Robin Washington, CFO of Gilead Sciences; Maynard Webb, chairman of Yahoo! Inc.; and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube.

    General Powell was named to the board in March. More on that here.

    Wojcicki took the YouTube CEO role earlier this year. Before that, she was senior vice president of Advertising & Commerce at Google, where she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She’s been with the company since 1999.

    Image via Google+

  • Susan Wojcicki To Head YouTube [Report]

    Google SVP of advertising Susan Wojcicki is reportedly taking over leadership at YouTube.

    The Information reported that the company is likely to make this move, based on comments from two people briefed on the discussions. Re/code has since weighed in with its own sources, saying that she will indeed lead YouTube.

    Wojcicki is one of the company’s earliest employees. In fact, she was the sixteenth one. The company was actually run out of her garage in Menlo Park in its early days.

    She’ll reportedly replace Salar Kamangar (an even earlier Google employee) at the YouTube helm as he moves to a different role at the company. He’s been running things since co-founder Chad Hurley left back in 2010.

    The change in leadership comes as Google announced it is making new efforts in cracking down on fake YouTube views. More on that here.

    Wojcicki, as you may know is the sister of Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23&Me, and wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

    Update: Google has apparently confirmed the news that Susan Wojcicki is the new SVP of YouTube. Re/code shares a statement from CEO Larry Page:

    “Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing. YouTube is a billion person global community curating videos for every possibility. Anyone uploading their creative content can reach the whole world and even make money. Like Salar, Susan has a healthy disregard for the impossible and is excited about improving YouTube in ways that people will love.”

    Image via Google+

  • Google Launches New Survey Ads, TrueView For AdMob, Online Games

    Google announced two new ad offerings today: surveys and TrueView in AdMob and games. The announcements came as part of a speech from Google SVP, Advertising, Susan Wojcicki, at an IAB conference.

    Of the surveys, she says:

    It’s still too hard for brands to measure the impact of their display and video campaigns, beyond simple metrics like clicks and impressions. We’ve made a lot of headway in this area and we’re now starting to roll out surveys, to deliver a more effective way for marketers to easily measure the “brand lift” from their campaigns.

    Advertisers will be able to run surveys to measure their display and video campaigns in AdWords, to better understand the impact of their ads in real-time. They can measure things like changes in the awareness of an upcoming movie, the recall of a new product name, intent to purchase a new cereal or the favorability of a particular brand. Businesses will be able to present consumers with an anonymous survey, to be shown days after they see an ad. Responses will be aggregated (and compared to a control group). With these results, brands can calibrate and optimize their online ad campaigns quickly and seamlessly. The rollout has started for marketers running video campaigns on YouTube and will be broadened to include display ad campaigns.

    The surveys are powered by Google Consumer Surveys, which Google launched nearly a year ago.

    Google is also bringing the skippable TruveView ad format to mobile apps in AdMob and to online games that utilize the Google Display Network. According to Wojcicki, the format has been very successful for YouTube.

    Both the survey ads and the TrueView ads have already begun rolling out.

    You can read more about the new formats and Wojcicki’s vision for where online advertising is headed in this Google+ post.

  • Google SVP Labels Local Ad Market Her “Biggest Focus”

    Susan Wojcicki is often credited with creating AdSense, and for years, she’s been in charge of all Google’s advertising products.  A significant shift may be occurring within the company, then, as Wojcicki recently said that the local advertising market now receives most of her attention.

    Wojcicki told Spencer Ante yesterday, "That is my biggest focus."  Which means a significant number of Googlers have probably been assigned to the subject, since Wojcicki was named a senior vice president in October.  (Only eight other people hold that title at Google.)

    Susan WojcickiWojcicki also said, "How can we enable you, when you’re walking around, to find out the best local offers around?  As an advertiser, how can I find out if someone saw my ad and went to a store?  The local market is a huge market, we’ve always wanted to be in it."

    As a result, Google may make some acquisitions in order to advance its expertise in this area.  Or it might reach out to small business owners more than ever in an attempt to win their cooperation.

    We should point out that former vice president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer was recently asked to supervise Google’s products and services related to local markets and geolocation, further emphasizing the company’s focus on this field.

  • Google Names Susan Wojcicki SVP

    Susan Wojcicki is an important figure in Google’s history for all sorts of reasons, which we’ll run through in a moment.  But it looks like she’ll play an important role in its future, too, as word has come that Wojcicki was named a senior vice president yesterday.

    A little background info: Wojcicki is the person who rented her garage to Larry and Sergey when they were in the process of founding Google.  She later became Google employee number 18, and managed to create everything from Google Doodles to AdSense over the years.

    One more interesting point: Wojcicki became Sergey’s sister-in-law when he married her younger sister, Anne, in 2007.

    As for the latest development, Claire Cain Miller reported, "Ms. Wojcicki has been named a senior vice president, Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, announced on Monday in a memo to Google employees. . . .  She was formerly a vice president, of which there are dozens at Google.  She joins eight other senior vice presidents."

    Miller then added, "Ms. Wojcicki’s day-to-day job will remain the same, overseeing all Google advertising products, including AdWords, AdSense and DoubleClick."