Funny how I only even think of Bing when I come across a reference on ycombinator, Then forget about it all over again.
His biggest issue is that 90% of people have Google as their homepage, I don't even think about it when it opens anymore, Its just always there as I need it.
Doesn't seem like a hired gun to me. Seems he's very ethical and loyal to whoever happens to be his employer and is not driven solely by financial reward.
Hired gun = mercenary. Geneva convention via Wikipedia:
2. A mercenary is any person who:
(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;
Ignoring the negative connotations of being a mercenary, the fact that he is portrayed as being motivated by conquering google, rather than a brilliant engineer looking to make a difference in the search space, makes him a hired gun by that definition.
Edit: Not completely sure this argument is watertight, but leaving it in for arguments' sake.
And with an engineer’s logic, he laid out his reasons for returning to the fray. Search determines where users go online, and search advertising is the most powerful economic force on the Internet. The business is too important to be controlled by a single company, he says.
Whatever search engine you prefer, it is kinda hard not to agree with that statement.
His biggest issue is that 90% of people have Google as their homepage, I don't even think about it when it opens anymore, Its just always there as I need it.