YouTube Gets New Chief Susan Wojcicki As Former Head Starts Mystery Project

Google has made Susan Wojcicki its new head of YouTube, with the former chief of the streaming video division reportedly going on to set up an "early-stage project" in the same way that Andy Rubin set aside Android to work on robotics. Wojcicki, who most recently was Google's senior vice president of advertising and commerce, was also the one of the first people to join the company back in 1999.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, who has been co-heading advertising and commerce, will take over the division alone, according to Re/code. The site has also heard that Salar Kamangar, who was until now in charge of YouTube, will now run his own clandestine project at Google, with details of the scheme still unclear.

Although Wokcicki is far less known outside of Google than some of the other division chiefs, the part she played in the company's history has been significant. In fact, it was her garage that Larry Page and Sergey Brin first operated Google out of in late 1998.

Google returned to that garage last year to celebrate its 15th anniversary.

YouTube has attempted to change its reputation in recent years, trying to shift from a site known for amateur footage to a more legitimate media hub. That's included pushing high-resolution 4K video and enabling live streaming for real-time events.