Google continues to make itself leaner and meaner as we trudge through this economic mess. In only the second large layoff in its history (the first coming back in January of this year when they let 100 recruiters go) the target this time is sales and marketing.

As reported by ClickZ about 200 Googlers from these areas will be let go. Most of this is coming from internal auditing that has shown some significant redundancy in positions and functions. SVP of Global Sales and Business Development Omid Kordestani wrote in a blog post today

In some areas weve created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process, Kordestani said. That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time.

While many will want to say that Google is struggling it seems unlikely that it is actually the case. What they appear to be doing however is continuing to evolve as a company and mature in their approach to business. In addition to these cuts there have been products shed in recent months that also signify Googles shorter fuse on making changes. Admittedly it sounds odd to hear the word layoff and Google used in the same breath.

Mr. Kordestani said it best though with the statement that For companies in hyper-growth such as Google has experienced its almost impossible to get everything right. That statement in and of itself is evidence of growth for Google. Just like the words layoff and Google seemed like an unlikely pairing so did the terms humility and Google. These days though it appears that no one will be immune to the change that this downturn has forced.

Imagine what it must be like at a search engine that actually has problems. Can you help us out with some info on that if you work at Yahoo, Live Search or Ask.com?

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