Google announced Thursday that the company was eliminating 200 sales and marketing positions around the world, and laying off the affected employees. In a blog posting, Omid Kordestani, Senior VP, Global Sales and Business Development for Google, said that those employees would be able to apply for jobs elsewhere in the company.

"Google has grown very quickly in a very short period of time," Mr. Kordestani said in a blog posting. "When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right -- and we certainly didn't. In some areas we've created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time."

The company had approximately 20,000 employees at the end of 2008, after laying off some 100 recruiters late in that year. The company has faced a challenging advertising market in the face of the global economic slowdown, though its work force reductions have been relatively modest in comparison to the rapid growth in headcount until the slowdown hit late last year.