It hasn"t been a good month for Microsoft"s Google-fighters. So bad that one left abruptly last week, and another decided this week to switch teams.
Vic Gundotra, a general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft and a 15-year employee, has agreed to join Google after first spending a year working on charitable endeavors.
"Mr. Gundotra has resigned from Microsoft and entered into an agreement with Google," Google spokesman Steve Langdon wrote in an emailed statement. "He will not be a Google employee for one year and intends to spend that time on philanthropic pursuits. We are uncertain what precise role he will play when he begins working for Google, but he has a broad range of skills and experience which we believe will be valuable to Google."
Gundotra had been charged with getting developers to write programs that build on top of Microsoft"s desktop software and online services. Most recently he had been working out a strategy to compete with the draw of Google"s newer, Web-based software applications.
His departure comes shortly after the abrupt departure of Martin Taylor, a corporate vice president charged countering Google by marketing Microsoft"s Windows Live and MSN services.