Slashdot linked to a blog post that has what's said to be an internal Microsoft email with a comparison of working at Google versus working at Microsoft. The email is an interview between an ex-Google employee who Microsoft hired. Here are my top hits from this email: He compares Google employees to kids who have everything taken care of for them, from food to laundry. Since these kids "don’t have a life yet," this is perfect for them and they can be on email 24/7. "Google doesn’t seem to think that private offices are valuable for technical staff. They’re wrong." On management; [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Employees | Microsoft: Employees

Gary Price reports that Portfolio.com released a database of top executives profiles, and part of that list includes many of the top executives from our beloved search engines. Here are quick links to some of those profiles of interest: Google (profile): Sergey Brin Larry Page Eric Schmidt Shirley M. Tilghman Arthur D. Levinson Michael Moritz L. John Doerr Paul S. Otellini Shona L. Brown George Reyes John L. Hennessy K. Ram Shriram Ann Mather David C. Drummond Yahoo (profile): Terry Semel Jerry Yang David Filo Patricia Cuthbert Edward R. Kozel Robert A. Kotick Vyomesh Joshi Michael [...]

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Via BetaNews, Yet another Microsoft search exec calls it quits from All About Microsoft covers how Microsoft's Live Search is losing another key executive -- general manager Dane Glasgow. Glasgow is said to be leaving for more time with his family and to purse non-profit interests. Former search chief Christopher Payne left at the end of March, replaced by Satya Nadella, who started on April 19th. [...]

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News Analysis: Microsoft General Counsel on DoubleClick and Antitrust from John Battelle documents some of his conversation with Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith today. In this conversation, John asks why Microsoft is encouraging the FTC to look into anti-trust issues with the Google & DoubleClick acquisition. Smith explained that the purchase of DoubleClick is a sign of Google wanting to control more of the market. While Eric Schmidt of Google feels owning DoubleClick is a tiny percent of the overall advertising world, Microsoft feels otherwise. John highlights especially that the [...]

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Microsoft has appointed Satya Nadella to head the newly formed Search and Ad Platform Group at Microsoft. Kevin Johnson, the president of Microsoft's Platform Services Division, will be Satya Nadella's boss. Nadella will start his new role on April 19th. He maintains a blog here. More details on the appointment can be found from article at the Seattle Times and News.com. [...]

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Microsoft's top search executive leaving company from the Seattle PI covers Microsoft's Christopher Payne reportedly leaving the company. The AP also reports similar news from its sources. Payne took over search efforts at Microsoft back in 2003. He oversaw what I'd call Microsoft's "second era" of search, that of developing a crawler-based search engine to take on Google. Below, some history on the second era, plus the company's "first era" of human-powered search and how a reorganization under the direction of Steve Berkowitz marks a new "third era" of battlin [...]

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The NY Times has a great write up named Looking for a Gambit to Win at Google’s Game. In the article, Steve Berkowitz, old CEO of Ask.com, now in charge of Microsoft's online services unit, describes the differences between running Ask.com and Microsoft. He calls Ask.com a row boat, and Microsoft a cruise ship. Mr. Berkowitz explains that at Microsoft, he needs to go through a lot of people to get things done, as opposed to with Ask.com where he was able to get things done very quickly. The article goes into many of Microsoft's challenges, including its technology focused core, the name [...]

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