It is no longer news that there has been a reshuffle at the helm of Google.  While most of the world has focused on the change of CEO duties from Eric to Larry, I think the most significant change is Sergey’s. He is now co founder.

What being Sergey returning to  co founder status means is that Google is ready to become a startup again, willing to give risky projects a real fighting chance. Hello Google Wave.

If anyone was to have this role, it had to be Sergey. Just look at the way he dresses. Eric once defined evil as what Sergey says is evil (the mindset of the idealistic startup founder). It is no surprise that he was the champion of Wave and Buzz.

So from now on, Google’s ‘projects’ will now be treated as startups and will be permitted to be more risky and not judged as projects in fully blown companies.

With Google Me and Google Offers launching soon, I think Google needs this shakeup if those projects are not to go the way of Latitude, Buzz, Places, Wave etc.

Welcome back to the startup life Sergey.

PS: I cannot help but wish that Jerry Yang will do same in Yahoo!