Microsoft Hiring To Take On YouTube, Flickr

With social media becoming increasingly popular on the Web, Microsoft is looking to ensure that it does not fall behind its rivals. A job posting appeared on the company's Web site Friday -- and has since apparently disappeared -- looking for a program manager for a photo and video sharing website. The service would be part of the Live family and work across several services including Spaces, SkyDrive, Messenger, and Hotmail.

"This feature team is building a next-generation photo and video sharing service that will compete with Flickr, Smugmug and other photo web solutions today," the job posting read. "This is a 'v1' opportunity." Microsoft had attempted to compete in the space before with Soapbox, however it never seemed to take off and only received cursory attention from the Redmond company.