Having taken up the mantle of building the "next-generation search engine," Microsoft has commissioned 20 or more "rock star" developers to collaborate on building it, reports Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

Sanaz Ahari, formerly of Live.com, was selected to lead the project.

Few details have been released about the search engine in-the-make aside from that it is "horizontal" (not limited to any one verticle, like images) and "very cool."