Sunnyvale

Rival search engines and marketers will continue to fret over Google's market gains regardless of how the "large actor" acts. Microsoft will "dance and flounder" until cutting a deal with Yahoo toward the end of 2009. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company will need to first find a CEO--which Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land founder, predicts could happen by February.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), perhaps hoping to get the focus off its finances and CEO search, will reduce the amount of time it holds on to user data to three months from just over a year. After that period, Yahoo will "anonymize" user log data within 90 days with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations. The Sunnyvale, CA-based company is also expanding its privacy policy beyond search log data to include info on pageviews, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

RiseSmart, an online job search service aimed at people earning +$100K, has closed a $3 million first round led by Norwest Venture Partners. The Sunnyvale, CA-based company has raised a total of $4.5 million since its inception in 2007. Competitors include TheLadders.com and to a lesser extent, individual headhunters, but RiseSmart's unique angle is that it serves both job seekers and employers.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) hasn't got a shot at nailing Peter Chernin as Jerry Yang's successor in the CEO role, AllThingsD's Kara Swisher reports, citing an unidentified source. Chernin, president and COO of News Corp (NYSE: NWS).

As Jeff Dossett adroitly answered—or non-answered—the questions tossed his way in a hastily arranged interview Monday afternoon after Yahoo was backed into announcing his new job early, I couldn't tell which experience helped him more: navigating Mount Everest twice or surviving Microsoft's office politics. Either way, the new head of Yahoo's U.S.

Yahoo's confirmation that Scott Moore is leaving is about to cross the wires, included in the news that Jeff Dossett is joining the company as SVP-U.S. Audience.  Dossett—who, like Moore, comes to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) from MSN—will "fill the role previously held by Scott Moore who is leaving Yahoo!

Yahoo reportedly is likely to announce significant cost-cutting plans, including another round of layoffs. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company, which employs about 14,300, is expected to disclose plans by Tuesday, when it reports third-quarter earnings.

Reliance ADA Group, the Indian telecom and media conglomerate, has bought a 70 percent stake in Willow.tv, the Cricket webcasting site based in Sunnyvale, CA. The price was undisclosed, but according to Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, the company will spend about $60 million to $70 million in this acquisition and expansion together, quoted in WSJ.