Alex from Microsoft informs me MS Live are after the following:

“…SEO expert to join MSN / Windows Live full time. The brief is to help in-market production teams optimize their pages for search engines. The focus will be on MSN content in entertainment, news, sport, motoring and personal finance but there will also be work on Windows Live services such as Spaces. The role is regional and will encompass 9 markets in Western Europe plus Russia, Turkey and Finland. The ideal candidate will have 2+ years of SEO experience and would be keen to work across a wide range of cultures and geographies. It’s also a full time job. However, the role could be based anywhere within Europe“.

If you’re interested, drop a note in the comments,and I’ll give you Alex’s email address.

Needless to say, Microsoft didn’t manage to meet that somewhat bizarre challenge.

“Microsoft may have been willing to spend years developing Vista, the long-delayed upgrade of its Windows operating system, but when Bill Gates was presented with a plan for finally beating Google in Internet search technology, he gave the engineers just 100 days“

When I was invited to Redmond to get a sneak peak of the new MSN search engine a few years back as part of SearchChamps, I left a little underwhelmed. I’m not sure how much more I can say due to still-existing non-disclosure agreements, but from information already published on the web, others clearly felt the same way. I thought that was a lot of potential from Microsoft Research, and clearly Microsoft has immense capability, and resources, but they haven’t really fired in the search space, as yet.

Are Microsoft the new IBM, and Google the new Microsoft?

Or are MS waiting for Vista to provide leverage?

They’ve been a little quiet of late. A little too quiet. As the article wisely states: “Don’t underestimate Microsoft”.

If there’s one prediction I’d make this year, it would be that this is the year that the MS search beast wakes.

Or maybe next year

They don’t need to.

Microsoft may not have the best search engine in the world, but without really trying, they’ve got the third most trafficed. And traffic is everything.

And they own a rather popular browser.

And they own a rather popular operating system.

And Microsoft doesn’t make a habit of buying giants

I can’t see it.

Well, probably not in search. However, they are very proud of the fact that their Live Maps is now incorporating 3-D, photo-realistic cityscapes, which puts them ahead of Google.

And they’re right - that is cool. How about some cities outside the US?

Microsoft also plan to leverage these 3-D maps for advertising purposes:

“Microsoft will integrate ads into these 3D models in a way it considers organic, by displaying them on virtual billboards the users will encounter as they zip around the cities, Figueroa said”

More…