With the Yahoo acquisition down the drain, Microsoft has to settle only for crumbs from the Sunnyvale-based Internet giant feast. However, crumbs that the Redmond giant is more than ready to swallow, especially when they are synonymous with Yahoo's top talent. It is the case of Dr. Qi Lu, former executive vice president of Engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo, who will take over Microsoft's Online Services Group. According to the software giant, the Yahoo veteran will be responsible with overseeing the Internet offerings aimed not only at consumers, but also at advertisers and publishers.

“I am tremendously excited to welcome Qi to Microsoft,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. “Dr. Lu’s deep technical expertise, leadership capabilities and hard-working mentality are well-known in the technology industry, and Microsoft will benefit from his addition to our executive management team.”

In his last role with Yahoo, Qi lead the development of the Internet giant's search and monetization platforms, according to Microsoft. At the end of November 2008, the Redmond company also hired former Yahoo Search vice president Sean Suchter, in a move that was on the verge of becoming a trend.

Fact is that the software giant emphasized time and again its commitment to challenge Google's dominance on the search engine market. Acquiring Yahoo would have gotten Microsoft half way there, but with the deal having gone bust, and with the focus set on growing Live Search's search share organically, benefiting from additional Yahoo resources will also contribute to taking the software giant a step closer to its target.

“I am genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Microsoft to make an enormous impact on the online industry,” Dr. Lu said. “Microsoft has built a great foundation for its search and advertising technologies, and put an amazing team of researchers and engineers in place to drive the next wave of innovation in online services. I’m looking forward to working with them to help transform the way people and businesses use the Internet to find and share information.”

Nevertheless, while Qi was coming on board, Brian McAndrews, former CEO of aQuantive and senior vice president of Microsoft’s Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group, announced that he was leaving the company. The Redmond giant also shuffled Online Services Group executives around, promoting Scott Howe to the position of corporate vice president, and Rik van der Kooi also to the role of corporate vice president.

Qi will start his new role at Microsoft come January 5, 2008. By overseeing the Microsoft Online Services Group, he would also be responsible for the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions business, the Online Audience business, the OSG Research & Development, and OSG Finance, the company infomed.