Google Reacts: Mayer ‘Whip-Smart’ & ‘A Tireless Champion Of Our Users’

Google is reacting to today’s news that early employee Marissa Mayer is resigning to take on the CEO job at Yahoo.

In a statement e-mailed to Marketing Land this afternoon, Google CEO Larry Page had this to say about Mayer’s departure:

“Since arriving at Google just over 13 years ago as employee #20, Marissa has been a tireless champion of our users. She contributed to the development of our Search, Geo, and Local products. We will miss her talents at Google.”

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Google employees have also been weighing in about today’s news.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team and also a longtime employee that joined Google in January 2000 (not long after Mayer), called her “whip-smart” and a hard worker.

NYT reports @marissamayer will be Yahoo’s next CEO: goo.gl/djDO2 Marissa works harder than anyone I’ve ever met + she’s whip-smart.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) July 16, 2012

Don Dodge, Developer Advocate at Google and also a veteran of Microsoft, AltaVista and many other tech companies, said Mayer and Yahoo’s current interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn, will make a “killer team”:

Microsoft Office what? @MarissaMayer is CEO of @Yahoo and top of @Techmeme Marissa & @RossLevinsohn = killer team techmeme.com/120716/p52#a12…

— Don Dodge (@DonDodge) July 16, 2012

And Hunter Walk, a product manager at YouTube, offered praise (and perhaps a warning?) about Mayer’s get-things-done philosophy:

Yahoo exec team abt to be introduced to the concept of @marissamayer‘s Office Hours mtg philosophy #ShitGetsDone

— Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) July 16, 2012

We’d also like to know what our readers think about today’s announcement. Cast your vote in our readers’ poll: Poll: What Do You Think About Marissa Mayer Going To Yahoo?

Postscript: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has also given a statement on Mayer’s departure that was reported this afternoon on Bloomberg TV:

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I worked with Marissa for many years — she’s a great product person, very innovative and a real perfectionist who always wants the best for users. Yahoo! has made a good choice and I am personally very excited to see another woman become CEO of a technology company. Best wishes to Marissa and Yahoo!