Microsoft Woos More Search Talent From Yahoo
Heck comes to Microsoft from Yahoo's search and advertising sciences at Yahoo Labs, where he was a vice president of the company's largest applied-science organization.
"We are happy to confirm that Larry Heck has accepted a job at Microsoft. He will be working for Satya Nadella, SVP, research and development, online services division, and he will start in a few weeks' time. We look forward to welcoming him to the team," Microsoft said.
Heck is one of several Yahoo executives Microsoft has wooed in the past few months. Microsoft also hired Sean Suchter and Qi Lu away from Yahoo. Suchter is leading Microsoft's Silicon Valley Search Technology Center and Lu is president of Microsoft's online services group.
If You Can't Buy Them, Hire Them
Microsoft's plans to acquire Yahoo may have failed, but its plans to acquire Yahoo's search executives seems to be working well. Heck led the teams responsible for scientific development, analysis and deployment of Yahoo search, search monetization, and display-advertising algorithms.
"Microsoft hiring talent away from Yahoo is part of a larger push the company continues to make in search," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "Microsoft feels it has to invest in search. It's almost a defensive move in a way, because if Microsoft doesn't develop online search advertising, there are broader threats to their various franchises."
Sterling is referring, in part, to the move toward cloud computing. Smaller computing devices like netbooks are ideal for cloud-based applications, though many netbooks run Windows XP or some other version of Windows.
There's also the mobile operating-system front. Windows Mobile is an incumbent smartphone platform, but hasn't gained significant market share in terms of the mobile Internet, Sterling noted, and it's not...