Microsoft Appoints Dr. Qi Lu to Run Online Services Group

I'm pleased that Microsoft has gone back to it's roots and hired a Technologist to head the Online Services Group, now we just have to figure out what online services are.

MSN wanted to be AOL and Live tried to be Google, so they sign a free agent from Yahoo to find their way on the Web.

Microsoft has a credibility gap, the company has no voice just PR speak that no one will listen to.

With the successful integration of aQuantive now complete, Brian McAndrews, former CEO of aQuantive and senior vice president of Microsoft’s Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group, has decided to transition out of Microsoft, and will do so over the next several months, serving in a consultative capacity to Steve Ballmer and Qi Lu during that time.

MSFT shareholders paid 6 BILLION dollars for aQuantive and Brian McAndrews, who  was named the 2008 Executive of the Year on Advertising Age's Digital A-List.

I talked to Brian at the Web 2.0 Summit last year and at Search Engine Strategies where I also met his predecessor Steve Berkowitz. I asked them to seek out members of the Web community and learn to communicate in a natural voice, but the Lawyers and their lame PR always got the final word. Who want's to listen to Lawyers?