The number of Yahoo executives jumping ship to Microsoft is steadily growing, with no end in sight. In the last three months, big names like Scott Moore, Qi Lu, and Sean Suchter have switched over.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the story continues with Larry Heck (the man on the right), a Yahoo search executive who finds Microsoft's budget for search much more enticing than his former employer's. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he doesn't want to acquire the entire company anymore, but he's still open to a search agreement. If that doesn't work out, Microsoft can keep on offering its hand to any Yahoo employee thinking of leaving, despite mass layoffs.

Grabbing employees from Yahoo still won't be enough to let the software giant move on up in the search business if nobody cares that there are alternatives to Google. The trick is to convince users that Live Search not only exists, but that it is the best search engine out there. That's no easy feat, though the company is trying various ways to improve the service, not to mention researching ways to go beyond current solutions.