Death Long-time YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki dies at the age of 56

The Google search engine was perfected in her garage and she herself played a key role in the rise of the US internet company for almost 20 years - now Susan Wojcicki has died at the age of 56.

The long-time head of the video platform YouTube succumbed to lung cancer, as her husband Dennis Troper announced on Facebook on Friday. Wojcicki ran YouTube, which Google bought in 2006, from 2014 until last year.

"My beloved wife of 26 years and mother of our five children left us today," wrote husband Troper. Susan was not only his best friend and life partner, but also a "brilliant mind", a loving mother and a friend loved by many. She had had lung cancer for the past two years.

Wojcicki was working at US computer giant Intel when she rented out her garage in Menlo Park, California, to her friends, the two Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in 1998. A year later, she joined Google as employee number 16 and its first marketing manager. She was involved in the development of image search at Google, the purchase of YouTube and the Doubleclick advertising platform. Last year, she relinquished her position at YouTube.

Google CEO Sundar Pinchai wrote in the online service X that Susan was "more important to the history of Google than anyone else". It is hard to imagine the world without her. Wojcicki was an "incredible person", a "leader and friend" who had an enormous impact on the world. "I am one of countless Googlers who are better because we knew her. We will sorely miss her."

SDA