Yeah, my impression is that the level of his title is fairly irrelevant. The whole thing is just to give him the ability to hire a team and have access to Google resources, from which they're hoping he'll produce something good.
Basic search term aggregation was illuminating. If Ray K. can go another step beyond statistical analysis, the results could be fascinating... or it could just be "People aren't wearing enough hats" of a let down.
edit: identities, not impressions