Microsoft Corp has appointed former Yahoo Inc executive Qi Lu to head its online ervices group, overseeing internet offering for consumers, advertisers and publishers.

Qi Lu would join as president of online services group to lead its search and online advertising and all its online communications services, Microsoft Corp said.

He would report to Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, the statement added.

"Lu's deep technical expertise, leadership capabilities and hard-working mentality are well-known in the technology industry, and Microsoft will benefit from his addition to our executive management team," Ballmer said.

Prior to this role, Lu was vice president of engineering responsible for technology development of Yahoo's search and marketplace business unit, including its search, e-commerce, and local listings of businesses and products till August 2008, when he left after serving for 10 years.

"Microsoft has built a great foundation for its search and advertising technologies and put an amazing team of researchers and engineers in place to drive the next wave of innovation in online services," Lu said.

Lu would join Microsoft from January 5, 2009 and in his role of running the online services group, he would oversee several groups including the advertiser and publisher solutions business, the statement added.

Besides, Brian McAndrews senior vice president of Microsoft's advertiser and publisher solutions group has decided to move out over the next few months and serve as consultant to Ballmer and Lu during that time.