Microsoft’s top Search Engine exec resigns
Posted on March 7th, 2007 in Search Marketing Live Search
Chris Payne, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s Live Search initiative, is leaving the company to, “pursue other interests”. Although a Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment and Mr. Payne was not available, it is doubtful that his departure will be lamented.
Microsoft’s search site has performed poorly under Payne’s leadership, loosing market share since the company launched its highly touted Search Engine, early in 2005. This attempt to challenge the leviathan in search, Google, while noble in its intent to provide the Internet with an additional choice in search results, has netted Redmond pretty close to nothing at the moment.
Payne went on record in a 2006 interview with the Seattle Post Intelligencer acknowledging that Microsoft needed to show a significant improvement in it’s search market share. He was quoted as saying, “I’m hoping this does turn it around,” and, “We believe that it’s still very early in search… that there’s still significant room for differentiation.”
Well, apparently no one in Redmond has sufficient sense of humor to see that the flat growth in search query volume on Microsoft’s Live Search engine has,”turned around” or “significantly differentiated” it while Google and Yahoo search volume have risen by 33 percent and 22 percent, respectively during the same time period, according to Nielsen NetRatings data.
A replacement has not yet been announced.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:04 am
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