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Confirmed: Yahoo’s Dr. Qi Lu Left to Head Microsoft’s Search Efforts

posted on December 5, 2008


A couple of weeks ago, we reported on rumors that Yahoo’s Dr. Qi Lu had left the company to join Microsoft. Whether or not he left Yahoo with a Microsoft offer-letter in hand–we suspect he did–Dr. Lu has indeed resurfaced at Microsoft.

According to the official release from Microsoft:

Dr. Lu will lead Microsoft’s efforts in search and online advertising and all the company’s online information and communications services. Dr. Lu will report to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer.

Dr. Lu played an instrumental role in the development of Yahoo’s search platform, which begs the question; what did Microsoft just achieve?

Is it a) why acquire Yahoo, when you can hire the guy that built its search platform? Or b) hire the guy that built Yahoo’s search platform–which has never lived up to its full potential and still lags way behind Google.

Whatever the answer, Dr. Lu will officially start work at Microsoft on January 5th.


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  • http://spudmobile.co.uk/guitar-hero-world-tour.aspx George Nobles

    This is the online war where every company need expert for there company. This is the best example of it.

  • http://www.greatpriceshere.com Nicole Price

    You were indeed bang on. Good move by MS.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..Offbeat Gift Ideas

  • http://www.seobrain.com/?p=10 SeoBrain

    Where Microsoft can’t acquisition yahoo, they hijack the yahoo people.. nice move Steve.

  • http://www.newhomessection.com Jayson

    Great question Andy – I guess time will tell if it was a good move, but you have to wonder how true “b” is. I guess MS figures anything is better than where we currently are. Qu Lu may have been hindered somehow over at Yahoo! hopefully this increases competition – it will only be good for all users if it does.

  • http://www.saadkamal.com Saad Kamal

    I think the answer is A.

    Yahoo is not a bad search engine actually. Try using it for a day or two and you would notice that its not ‘that bad’ :) . Some may even find the results better than Google.

    I guess the problem of Yahoo is somewhere else not with their Engine.

    Saad Kamal’s last blog post..Technorati Engage Ad Network (Public Beta)

  • http://www.paystolivegreen.com Patrick

    This is not a good sign for Yahoo. If other companies like Google and Microsoft can take some of their best workers, they will have a tough time keeping up.

    Patrick’s last blog post..Make Your Own Homeade Pesticides and Repellants

  • http://themakemoneyfromhomeblog.com Ken @ Money From Home Blog

    That’s so funny. No wonder why they were so stern in saying that they weren’t interested in buying Yahoo anymore. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.

  • http://www.seoresults.co.za/pages/seo-tools/ Jacques Seoman

    And the MicroHoo saga continues…..it makes sense to recruit the designer of the race car if you can’t buy the team……much cheaper this way. I see this as a good solid foundation to maybe come up with something really competitive?

  • http://www.dstudiobali.com/webdesign/busby-seo-test-page/ Busby SEO

    “War” everywhere. This is the online war, to win every move and strategy is legal LOL

    Busby SEO’s last blog post..By: Chalicious

  • http://super-affiliatetraffic.com Super Affiliate Traffic

    I am sure dr Lu has some kind of contract not allowing him to speak about Yahoo. Or, at least, I could imagine. I used to Work for Canon. Xerox approached me, but I was told by Canon to not tell anything. Contract is contract. How about dr Lu?

    Super Affiliate Traffic’s last blog post..Super Affiliate Traffic by Erick Rockefeller and Howie Schwartz

  • http://www.netage.co.za Goran Web Design

    I’ll believe that Microsoft can realisically compete with Google when I actually see it.. But I’m not holding my breath

  • http://spudmobile.co.uk/guitar-hero-world-tour.aspx George Nobles

    It is really great news for the microsoft.

  • http://www.adwords-secret.net JT

    Microsoft always “buying” the expert from other companies. That’s what they do.

    JT’s last blog post..Zen and PPC campaigns

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