Live Labs is live!  Live Labs is a joint venture between MSN and MSR that is chartered to create new research opportunities, new prototypes, and new academic funding for internet research.  Search Labs is a companion organization building innovative new products, and with a presence in Silicon Valley as well. The labs will be headed by Gary Flake who joined us from Yahoo, and Ashok Chandra who was at IBM and Verity before joining Microsoft in December. 

This is going to be a great opportunity for all of us in MSN to work closer with research. You can find the announcement here (feed). 
The Search Champs were here for the announcement and have had quite a bit to say about it.

Brady Forrest, PM

PS- they are hiring!