Duane Forrester, referred to as the face of Microsoft's search engine, Bing and the Webmaster community, announced on his blog that he is leaving Bing.
He was not fired like he was back in October 2014, when Microsoft had mass layoffs and he was on the chopping block. But this time, he is leaving on his own. Microsoft soon realized, after the webmaster community was devastated they lost him as a contact at Bing, that they needed to rehire him a couple months later.
But now, he is leaving Bing. He promises Bing is on the right track with Webmasters and Webmaster Tools. But I am not too sure about that, at least that is what my gut tells me. Who will be the face, the bridge, between Bing and webmasters? Good questions, we will see if that happens.
He is leaving because he wants to go into the small business arena. He seems to be starting his own SEM/SEO agency but he didn't say that specifically. He said "I come from a family that ran a small business for 16 years," and he has it in his blood to do that. He clearly understands what that work entails based on his description in the blog post.
Google's Pierre Far left Google recently to start his own SEM agency. It is a good trend, former search employees can do very well offering SEO services based on their resume of working at a major search engine.
Huge respect to Duane for making the move, which starts November 14, 2015. I am sure he will be in touch with what he does and he will still be a major part of the SEM industry.
The big question, who will be that glue for Bing and the webmasters?
Forum discussion at Facebook, Twitter and WebmasterWorld.
