As we pointed out last time rumors started flying, Smith is an interesting choice for the job -- she's definitely got experience wrangling resources and generally getting things done at Google (particularly in its wild-eyed Google X division). President Obama lauded her knack for "leading talented teams and taking cutting-edge technology and innovation initiatives from concept to design to deployment" in a statement, but she doesn't have the same sort of (arguably limited) experience in government that her two predecessors had. Then again, that just might be a good thing. It's not like the mission of America's Chief Technology Officer has ever been all that clear anyway -- the person in the hotseat was meant to "promote technological innovation to help achieve [the country's] most urgent priorities", and in Todd Park's case that meant applying some elbow grease to Healthcare.gov's troubled launch. Smith may just be able to dodge most of that, though: the Post says her role will be more about setting agendas than launching products.

Billy Steele contributed to this story.