Former Windows bigwig working on Ajax Search API at Google

When Marc Lucovsky, one of Microsoft's top Windows architects, jumped ship and joined Google a couple of years ago, nobody (including Lucovsky) was willing to say what his new role would be inside Redmond's search rival.

(Lucovsky is known for his work on Windows NT, as well as being the target of a chair he claims Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threw at him when he announced his intentions to join Google. At one point during his 16-year Microsoft tenure, Lucovsky also led Microsoft' "Hailstorm" Web services project.)

Leave it to former Microsoft chief blogger Robert Scoble to get the scoop. Scoble blogged that he interviewed Lucovsky for his new employer, PodTech, on December 12 and revealed that Lucovsky is now working on Google's Ajax Search API (application programming interface).

Google's Ajax Search API is designed to allow Web masters and developers to add search boxes to their Web sites and build applications on top of Google Search.

In early 2005, some Microsoft watchers speculated that Lucovsky had left Microsoft to work on the alleged Google OS project. In recent interviews, some Google officials have denied such a project exists. Meanwhile, Microsoft is working on its own "Cloud OS" effort.