Key Bing Engineer Defects To Google

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You can bet Microsoft isn't happy about this. I wonder if this is going to spark another lawsuit between the two companies.

Blaise Agüera y Arcas, a respected engineer and software designer at Microsoft, has left the company to join its rival Google. Mr. Agüera y Arcas was involved in a variety of development projects at Microsoft including some on augmented reality, wearable computing and natural user interfaces. He was a top figure in the development of Microsoft’s Bing Maps service.
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What's next? Steve switching sides to Anandtech? :eek: :p
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Seems MS forgot to add a non-compete clause to his prior contract. :D
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Actually, it doesn't really mean that. Google could well have said, "Come on down and if you're sued we'll pick up the tab." With a good enough salary offer that might be hard to resist even if bound by a non-compete. Then again, maybe this guy was actually lower-echelon and wasn't bound.

I think companies get on shaky ground with this stuff, myself--seems like you're putting yourself under pressure by filching the other guy's employees, especially in this case, Bing employees, as Microsoft would have no trouble enforcing a non-compete, I would think.
 
WaltC said:
Actually, it doesn't really mean that. Google could well have said, "Come on down and if you're sued we'll pick up the tab." With a good enough salary offer that might be hard to resist even if bound by a non-compete. Then again, maybe this guy was actually lower-echelon and wasn't bound.

I think companies get on shaky ground with this stuff, myself--seems like you're putting yourself under pressure by filching the other guy's employees, especially in this case, Bing employees, as Microsoft would have no trouble enforcing a non-compete, I would think.
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Could be that, or it could be that MS and google have gone at it enough in court that it is effectively a standoff on such matters and enforcing one could cause a chain reaction of the things, or could cause litigation in an otherwise uncontested area. I can see if the guy was poached for his wearable computing background that MS might not have enough incentive to pursue that if there are notable repercussions. MS being MS they likely have some really promising technology they thought up or bought that they have been sitting on to watch it wither away while they piss away a market opportunity. Google is pushing hard to be first in that arena with regards to a marketable item, and might see the risk as worthwhile.
 
I wish bing would just die already, its an awful search engine, and I dislike the way the results page feels/looks like a list of advertisements.
 
I'd like to watch the 90-day lobotomy, er, I mean initiation of this guy, you know, to make sure the term "Scroogled" is removed from his brain and personality. :D
 
LeninGHOLA said:
It's actually quite a good search engine.
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It really is as I do not understand the near SDF level of hate against it. I tried it out a couple years ago and have never gone back to Google. I found that search results were often more meaningful and less commercial. I loved their pretty pictures enough to also install the Bing desktop on my background wallpaper in Windows 7

Steve said:
No disrespect to anyone at any other site (we love Anand and the crew) but there isn't enough money to get me to work anywhere but here. :cool:
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What if Anand Shimpi offered you a fully restored 1969 Camaro Z28 in new like condition?
 
Now I understand non-competes for WA & CA much better. What states enforce them the most?
 
I dunno, sounds more like a key google glass engineer got hired than a key bing -maps- engi got hired... Bing is utter shit and I doubt they'd blame him for leaving.
 
Steve said:
No disrespect to anyone at any other site (we love Anand and the crew) but there isn't enough money to get me to work anywhere but here. :cool:
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Aaaaawwwwwwwwwww. :p :3
 
Well with Bing maps switching to the Nokia mapping services I cannot say I am that surprised. And the few times I have used the Bing Map service it is probably the most dated map interface I have used. So who knows maybe it will improve now.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Seems MS forgot to add a non-compete clause to his prior contract. :D
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Is that enforceable in the US? A lot of us had that in our contract back at my old job. They can't legally do shit if you decide to join the competition for some reason.
 
So homeboy gets to spill all the beans about what Microsoft is doing and working on behind the scenes to Google for them to copy.
 
BoogerBomb said:
So homeboy gets to spill all the beans about what Microsoft is doing and working on behind the scenes to Google for them to copy.
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LOL I think you got that backwards buddy. Have you actually looked at Bing's results page? Layout, color scheme, everything is a 1:1 rip of Google. No originality over there apparently.
 
Why would they care, obviously he wasn't doing a good enough job.

Non competes are tricky because while you can try to enforce them there are other basic human rights like you cannot just make it so a person can never work again, that can never hold any legal water. When you talk about people high up in positions like this there are only a couple companies that actually can hire them. So saying you cannot compete is like writing them a death sentence to go back and start their entire career over again.

Someone mentioned yahoo, which is funny because yahoo actually just runs bing as its search engine.
 
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