2026-11-01
Sundar Pichai (Chrome): From Toolbar PM to Google CEO—How 'Invisible Speed' Captured 70% of the Global Browser Market
[Top 100 Product Managers · #47] When Sundar Pichai joined Google in 2004, he was a rank-and-file product manager overseeing the tiny Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. When then-CEO Eric Schmidt fiercely opposed building a standalone browser—calling it a suicidal war against Microsoft—Pichai quietly led a small team to build Chrome with the V8 engine and multi-process sandboxing, defining the ultimate ceiling of the product manager career path.
