Another Microsoft manager jumps from the Live Search ship
In 2007, there was rampant turnover in the Microsoft Live Search unit. It looks like 2008 is off to a similar start.
Mike Nichols, Group Program Manager for Live Search, has resigned and is moving to work for Yusuf Mehdi, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.
(Mehdi "oversees strategic partnerships across the company’s personal services businesses, is responsible for large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and forges relationships with early-stage startups and venture capital firms," according to his bio on the Microsoft corporate site. Mehdi took this job in August 2007; before that he was Microsoft's Chief Advertising Strategist.)
Nichols was responsible for the planning and design of the newly touted vertical areas that the Live Search team is targeting, including image search, video search and news search. According to Nichols' bio, he also was in charge of query suggestions for Live Search.
Nichols joined the Live Search team in late 2006, ten years into his Microsoft tour of duty. He has had involvement in Microsoft's portal, advertising, MSN services, Internet Explorer and Windows businesses.
Update (with more details from Microsoft): Microsoft officials confirmed Nichols’ plan to depart the Live Search engineering team on February 4, but said that his new responsibilities "will enable him to continue contributing to the Search team while taking on an expanded charter in the company's online services business," according to a spokeswoman. Nichols' replacement has yet to be named.
Microsoft continues to struggle to make search-query-share headway. The latest data from market researchers shows Microsoft remaining stagnant, if not losing, in overall query share compared to its competitors.
In March 2007, Microsoft created a new Search and Advertising Group and appointed Dynamics ERP veteran Satya Nadella to run the new unit. As part of that move, Microsoft severed Live Search from the rest of its Windows Live services, which remain under the domain of Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky. That same month, Windows Live Platform VP Blake Irving resigned, as did Chris Payne. the Corporate Vice President in charge of Windows Live Search. In November, Ken Moss, head of core search, left his post.
What to make of all the recent resignations and reshufflings among the various Microsoft business units? Well, it is reorg season in Redmond. But on the Live Search side of the house, it's got to be tough to keep banging your head against the wall and making little or no headway in growing your market share....