on 05 October 2009
I reported over the weekend that Hugh Crean, general manager of Bing Travel, is leaving the company, effective October 23.
Now, it turns out, that Jay Bartot , chief principal engineer at Bing Travel, will be following Crean out the door a few weeks later, in mid-November.
Bartot, who arrived at Bing Travel’s predecessor brand, Farecast, in November 2003 when it was still a cloak-and-dagger affair, undoubtedly did a lot of the technological heavy lifting at Farecast and played a key role in the integration of Farecast into Microsoft’s Bing.
Bing Travel won’t stop bing-ing with Crean and Bartot moving on to the next challenge. I have to believe there are more than a few capable people at Microsoft who can step up to the plate in their absence.
The duo’s exits symbolize the fact that Bing Travel, acquired by Microsoft when it was known as Farecast in 2008, is moving onto its next stage within Microsoft’s search portfolio.
The question now is whether Bing Travel can up the ante with much of the original team missing in action.
Can anyone make a prediction on that in the next seven days with 75% confidence?
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We have to remember that really compelling products don’t appear – or disappear – overnight. Whatever is in the brains and product plans of the Bing team that remains, and the Bing team members that have left won’t start affecting the market till many quarters out.
Deeper the problem, IMHO, of Bing Travel is that Microsoft has become an incredibly unfocused company. Where does BT fit in the current big scheme of things? Is it “just” a feature of a Bing that may wither over time, or is it part of some broader online MS strategy that will be properly fed and watered? If MS does become more focused – as IBM did in the 90’s – where will Bing and Bing Travel end up in priority list?
David: Excellent questions about Microsoft’s focus and the role of Bing Travel within Bing. I don’t have a lot of answers in my crystal ball.
Of course, Microsoft likely is very focused these days on implementing the Yahoo-Bing partnership.
With travel being such a prominent e-commerce category, you’d have to think that Bing Travel will get some love within Bing, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
At any rate, Hugh Crean and Jay Bartot will be watching from the sidelines, as well.
I have *so* seen this movie…
Stuart: If you have seen the movie, then how does it turn out? Is there an unexpected plot twist in the end? Lemme know because it would save a lot of research:)
Well if you miss this showing, pretty well the same movie is playing in Cinema 2.
Can anyone tell me the point of Yahoo building its travel brand and Bing Travel? I thought MS was supposed to provide the search and Yahoo would build the entertainment/peripheral services? Seems somewhat counter productive to have both.