????這個工具欄（雖然聽起來既親切又討厭）是谷歌與微軟的交鋒焦點，而皮查伊正是該部門的領導者。到2000年代中期，皮查伊擔心微軟可能會對IE做出修改，使用戶更難甚至完全無法安裝谷歌工具欄。2006年10月，IE做出了一次重大升級。就在這段時間前后，皮查伊與公司高層進行了一系列有時甚至很緊張的會談，強調微軟有可能威脅到谷歌的相當一部分業(yè)務。據(jù)兩位當時參會的谷歌高管回憶：“那簡直就是一個‘末日方案’?！辈痪煤?，谷歌高層就決定開發(fā)自己的瀏覽器Chrome。

????Chrome發(fā)布后，皮查伊被提拔為副總裁，后來又升任高級副總裁，負責管理包括谷歌郵箱(Gmail)在內的一系列谷歌應用。同時他也進入了谷歌高層的核心小圈子，成為少數(shù)幾個直接向拉里?佩奇報告工作的人之一。后來安卓操作系統(tǒng)(Android)的創(chuàng)建人安迪?魯賓卸任，轉而在谷歌內部領導一個秘密的機器人項目，拉里?佩奇便任命皮查伊一并負責安卓業(yè)務。

????皮查伊最近一次升職后，拉里?佩奇將把主要精力放在更長期的問題上，而不必每天聽太多匯報、處理太多事務。皮查伊現(xiàn)在也將開始負責搜索、地圖、Google +、商務、廣告產品和基礎架構等工作。換句話說，他負責的工作已經(jīng)涵蓋了谷歌絕大多數(shù)業(yè)務，只有YouTube、Nest、Google X和Calico等半獨立的事業(yè)部除外。僅僅6年前，他還是幾十個名不見經(jīng)傳的谷歌中層干部中的一員，頭銜也僅僅是“產品管理總監(jiān)”而已。

????今年42歲的皮查伊出生于印度南部的泰米爾納德邦。大學畢業(yè)后，他赴美留學，先后獲得了斯坦福大學(Stanford University)工程與材料科學的研究生學位，沃頓商學院(Wharton School)MBA學位。在2004年加盟谷歌前，他曾在麥肯錫（McKinsey）和應用材料公司（Applied Materials）工作過。他在公司內外是個人見人愛的人物，同時與佩奇也保持著“溫和、隨意的親密關系”。皮查伊將領導谷歌所有產品的消息是在上周透露的，當時前博主、風投家歐姆?馬利克就曾在Twitter上發(fā)表了一句很多人都贊同的感言：“這證明好人有好報?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng)）

????譯者：樸成奎

????The toolbar — as geeky and benign as it sounds — was a key locus of Google’s combat with Microsoft. Pichai was the group’s leader, and by the mid-aughts he worried that Microsoft would modify IE to make it more difficult, or even impossible, for users to install the toolbar. In a series of sometimes tense conversations with top brass around the time of a major update to IE in October 2006, Pichai argued that Microsoft could threaten a sizable chunk of Google’s business, according to two executives who were there. “It was a doomsday-like scenario,” one of the executives says. Shortly after, Google execs gave Chrome the green light.

????After the launch of Chrome, Pichai was promoted to vice president and later to senior vice president. He was given oversight for Google’s apps, including Gmail, and became a member of the exclusive L-team, the small group of executives who report directly to Page. And when Android creator Andy Rubin left to begin a secret robotics project within Google, Page put Pichai in charge of Android as well.

????With his latest promotion, which is meant to allow Page to focus on longer term issues and on pushing products forward without the overhead of having too many direct reports, Pichai will now also oversee products like search, maps, Google+, commerce, ad products and infrastructure. That’s the vast majority of Google’s enterprise, with the exception of YouTube and other semi-independent units like Nest, Google X, and Calico. Just six years ago, he was one of dozens of mid-level Googlers with the title of director of product management.

????Pichai, 42, is a native of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He attended university in India before obtaining a graduate degree in engineering and materials science at Stanford. He earned an MBA at the Wharton School and worked at McKinsey and Applied Materials before joining Google in 2004. He is universally well-liked at Google, where he seems to enjoy a “warm, easygoing rapport” with Page, as well as outside the company. When news of his latest promotion to head all of Google’s products came out last week, venture capitalist Om Malik, a former blogger, tweeted what was in the mind of many: “Proof nice guys can win.”