Posted 09/16/09 at 08:43:46 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Google made a bit of a surprising move recently by openly stating it wanted to hire away Yahoo search engineers. Google’s senior search blogger, Matt Cutts, said, “If you’re an excellent Yahoo engineer with solid experience in search, Google is hiring.”

The search giant may feel able to snatch skittish talent from Yahoo as the Microsoft deal closes. Microsoft has agreed to take on 400 Yahoo employees, but no assurances have been made beyond that. Given the uncertainty, many may be willing to jump ship for Google.

Ask.com has also been going after these employees. At a recent expo, Ask called out Yahoo employees with a banner reading, “My company just gave up on search. Where do I work now?”

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Posted 07/19/08 at 12:09:47 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Google wants to further strengthen its grip on the online contextual ads business. To this end, it has announced that it is going to acquire a leading Russian contextual advertising company, Begun, for $140 million. Begun’s network encompasses 143,000 Russian websites and 40,000 publishers. Rambler Media, the majority owner of Begun, will buy the remaining stake in the company and in turn sell the entire company to Google. According to Rambler, the online search ads business in Russia is expected to grow by 50% in a year’s time. The acquisition will allow Google to expand its wings over the lucrative, Russian-speaking internet landmass.

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