Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn't get what he wanted out of Yahoo, but that hasn't stopped him from going after his real objective -- taking down Google. Today, that quest came at the expense of Kevin Johnson, who will no longer run the company's online operations.

Johnson, who started with Microsoft in 1992, was the executive in charge of leading the troubled Vista launch as well as the company's online advertising push. But Ballmer, who said he is looking for a replacement, apparently wasn't happy with the company's effort to catch up with Google.

Johnson's replacement will focus solely on the company's online efforts, a move praised by TechCrunch.

As for teaming up with Yahoo, that prospect remains a possibility now that Carl Icahn has ended his proxy fight for control of the company. But if a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo is to emerge, Icahn and his board members will have to first reach an agreement with Jerry Yang.

In the meantime, both Yahoo and Microsoft are said to be looking into a deal for AOL.

As for Microsoft, the company is still working hard to raise the profile of Live Search, which it sees as critical to competing with Google. Microsoft's plan to reward users who purchased products from its searches with cash appears to have paid some dividends in the form of a 15 percent spike in search volume. However, that gain didn't translate into an increased share of the total search market.

To carve out a bigger portion of the search market, Microsoft has reportedly cut a deal with Facebook to integrate Live Search into the social network later this fall. Microsoft, which sells display ads on the site, owns a stake in Facebook, and the deal is believed to be similar to one that Google has with MySpace.