Microsoft Web search exec leaving company: source
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The Microsoft Corp.  executive in charge of closing the gap on Web search leader Google Inc  is leaving the company, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
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Blog: Microsoft's game guru leaves the company for EA--interesting, since he made a big deal about EA Sports title Madden NFL 2008 at his E3 address.
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The head of Cisco's service provider business, who was once seen as a possible successor to the CEO, is leaving the company.
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(90 sec.) Web giant's chief U.S. sales officer exits a week after Jerry Yang takes over as CEO.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. is removing the beta, or test, tag from Live Search, its next-generation search engine, and making it the underlying search tool at its MSN.com portal. The move comes as Microsoft anxious attempts to gain traction in the search engine market, where it remains a distant third behind leader Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Because search engine-based advertising is a fast-growing, multibillion-dollar business, Microsoft has invested heavily in improving its search tools and accompanying ad network. But it has failed to make a dent in Google's dominance. In June, Google nabbed 45 percent of all search engine queries in the U.S., while Yahoo got 29 percent and Microsoft 13 percent, according to comScore Networks Inc. This represents a market share reduction for Microsoft of almost 3 percentage points from June 2005. From Tuesday to Thursday, Microsoft will replace the current MSN Search engine on MSN.com with Live Search, which features a revamped image search service, an improved local search, a redesigned user interface and new tools to refine query results, said Derrick Connell, general manager of the Microsoft search business unit. The change will take place progressively on different MSN host servers. When users run a search on MSN.com, they will be taken to a Live Search results page on the Live.com domain, but there will be links there to guide users back to the MSN.com portal, he said. Live Search went intoÂ public beta testing in March at Live.com, the home page of the Live-branded initiative Microsoft launched last year to boost its software-as-a-service offerings. Live.com is also exiting its beta status this week. Among the enhancements in Live Search are new options to view full-size photos in image search results and an increased number of "bird's eye" aerial images in local search, which is shedding its beta label in its U.S. and the U.K. services. Live Search also features a new social search service called QnA, in which users can pose questions and have others chime in with answers. Yahoo, Google and others have similar question-and-answer search services. Â
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Microsoft's Bruce Jaffe, corporate VP in charge of acquisitions, is retiring on February 29.
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Noted programmer Adam Bosworth leaving Google where he had been in charge of health initiatives.
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Monster Worldwide , owner of the world's largest job-listing website, said chief financial officer Lanny Baker resigned and will be replaced by Timothy Yates as part of a management shuffle.
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Borders' executive VP for emerging business and technology and chief strategy officer has resigned; position has been eliminated.
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Cammie Dunaway is the latest in series of executives to leave the search company.
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The executive who led Microsoft Corp.'s Web search division is leaving the his post with the software maker to start his own business, Microsoft people aware of the situation said Wednesday.
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Blog: Yahoo Finance general manager leaves
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Jeff Raikes, a 26-year veteran of Microsoft, plans to retire later this year and the company announced that it was reaching outside its ranks for his successor.
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In the past decade, searching the Web has grown from an academic experiment to a multibillion-dollar business. Microsoft has not been a player, being content to outsource its MSN Search service to rival Yahoo!
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(InfoWorld) - The executive in charge of leading Microsoft's battle against search giant Google is leaving the company to form his own venture, according to published reports. The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Chris Payne, corporate vice president of Windows Live search, plans to leave his job and form a company in Seattle. According to the report, his departure is part of a set of changes in the organization since Microsoft appointed former Ask.com executive Steve Berkowitz last year as senior vice president to lead its online group. Microsoft has declined to comment on reports of Payne's leaving, and his biography remained on Microsoft's Web site Thursday. According to the bio, Payne is in charge of "delivering the best search experience for customers and helping them find the information that is important to them," as well as overseeing Windows Live Shopping. Published reports did not make it clear if Payne plans to leave Microsoft for his own reasons or if the company is letting him go. However, Microsoft's search and online business has not been faring well against Google since Microsoft unveiled a plan in November 2005 to rename its search engine Windows Live Search and develop other Web-based services under that moniker in an attempt to take more of the online advertising market. The company at the time also announced a small-business hosted package called Office Live. Just last week in a conference call, financial analysts from UBS Investment Research saidÂ Microsoft's search business is "massively underperforming"Â against Google in both the incidence of search queries and in advertising revenue. They also predicted that the gap between the two companies in this market would not be closing anytime soon unless Microsoft takes drastic measures to ramp up its search strategy by striking deals with enterprise partners and finding legal ways to link its online offerings to its popular enterprise software products. Revenue from Microsoft's online properties also remained relatively flat over the last fiscal year despite the company's increased investment to bolster this part of its business. Before taking over Microsoft's Windows Live Search team, Payne was vice president of MSN.com, where he managed MSN Search, the MSN.com home page, MSN Autos, MSN Entertainment, MSNBC, Slate, and the MSN Channels properties.
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Christopher Payne will leave software giant to form own company, Microsoft says.
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While senior Microsoft executives pit the company against Google in a looming Internet search war, the Redmond, Washington-based company has begun offering a Google search tool for download from the Microsoft.