Looks like MSN really is serious about search. They've lured one of Yahoo's top search engine experts, Gary Flake. I have a feeling that this has a lot do with developing paid search...
Gary Flake wasa principal scientist at Yahoo Research Lab and former head of research at the Web portal's Overture Services division. He seems to have strong background in Paid Search (PPC). This make a lot of sense for MSN, now that they have broken away from Yahoo/Overture and are looking to develop their own PPC portal for the MSN search engine. Flake will set the technology vision and future direction for Microsoft's MSN portal, its Web search engine, its desktop search software and its paid search business, according to Microsoft spokeswoman Kathy Gill.
This is is a strong move for the upstart search engine project that Microsoft has undertaken with "MSN Search", but if they really want to impress me they need to go ahead and steal awaya search expert or two from Google!