Robert Scoble, one of the world's most influential and well-known bloggers, is leaving Microsoft for startup podtech.net

It's not official until he announces it tomorrow at Vloggercon.com, but in typical blogOsphere fashion the news is out before it is news.    Looks like Robert notified a few folks who called a few others who posted about it and it'll be old news by the time he announces tomorrow.

I had a chance to talk briefly with Robert at the MIX06 conference and he's a great guy.  I'm very surprised that Microsoft allowed this to happen though I'm guessing it's because the corporate structure made it hard to reward him appropriately for his enormous contributions to Microsoft as one of their most prominent online spokespeople.    Also I'm guessing he was frustrated by the slow pace of change at MS. As such a well-connected guy I bet he wanted to jump into the excitement of Web 2.0.  Microsoft is missing much of the point of Web 2.0 as many have noted – in fact it they aren't careful Web 2.0 could kill Microsoft, and Scoble's departure is notable in that respect.   He was Mr 2.0 at Microsoft and now he's gone.

Microsoft's loss is Podtech's gain and I'll look forward to seeing Robert more often now that he's heading to Silicon Valley.