Microsoft Live Search is horrible, and oh, another exec jumps ship

ZD Net is reporting that:

On April 24, Microsoft announced internally that Dane Glasgow, general manager for Live Search, is leaving the company to work for various nonprofits and spend more time with his family.

Glasgow was one of the handful of direct reports of Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s newly appointed search chief, who is heading up Microsoft’s combined search and ad platform unit. Glasgow helped Microsoft launch Windows Desktop Search and has been part of the team behind the first wave of Windows Live services.

(Nadella replaced Chris Payne, the former head of search who left Microsoft at the end of March.)

MSN Search is basically irrelevant at this point, which is a crying shame. Google needs a legitimate competitor besides Yahoo, particularly to push the envelope on adwords and contexualized search advertising. If they can’t even put out a legitimate search result, they can not attract a meaningful audience.

Microsoft has a history of copying other good ideas, usually poorly at first, though over time the product is improved to the point of superiority. In terms of search, they are not gaining an ounce of ground, and from the looks of the executives dropping like dead fleas, they aren’t even close to becoming meaningful any time soon. Shame…