• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 2, 2009

It's musical chairs over at Google, where its president of global sales operations and business development, Nikesh Arora, is -- at least temporarily -- assuming the responsibilities of its VP for Global Online Sales and Operations David Fischer.

Fischer will begin a sabbatical toward the end of the month, and then return in January to focus on Google products -- including Geo, local, and Check-Out -- a company spokesman confirmed. The Business Insider first reported news of the change on Wednesday.

"While this will take up a significant amount of my time in the short term, I view it as a great opportunity to roll-up my sleeves and really understand the challenges (online sales and operations) faces globally," Arora said in an internal memo regarding his additional responsibilities.

This is just the latest in a string of recent changes within Google's sale department. In April, Arora -- formerly president of international operations and head of Google Europe -- replaced Omid Kordestani as Google's global sales boss. And in March, Tim Armstrong, Google's president of advertising and commerce for North America, left to take the reins at AOL.

In March 2008, Fischer replaced Sheryl Sandberg, who left Google to assume the role of chief operating officer at Facebook. Sandberg played a key role in building the search giant's main advertising programs---AdWords and AdSense--during her six-year tenure.

Fischer is himself credited with helping build Google's self-service advertising business, as well as providing leadership for the online sales and operations program since its inception in early 2002.

Fischer also previously managed operations for Google's consumer products worldwide and ran Google's Book Search scanning operations.