According to sources close to the situation, AOL has been busy selecting the board for the company, which is still set to spin itself off by year’s end–even as it slows down a decision on a new search deal with either current partner Google or a more emboldened Microsoft.

AOL is using Spencer Stuart in the search for directors, led by well-known headhunter Jim Citrin, sources said, and the company has already settled on several outside candidates.

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Several sources close to Yahoo and Microsoft have told BoomTown that a search partnership deal between the companies is more likely to be signed quickly now that Yahoo has picked former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz as its next CEO.

Such a deal, which the pair have tried unsuccessfully to strike many times, would be a big boost to Bartz, who is coming into a very difficult turnaround situation at the troubled Internet concern.

Microsoft has a deal ready, but will Bartz sign it?

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With so many more ex-Yahoos out there now, BoomTown put out feelers to a range of them to ask whom they would like to run the company they no longer work for. After all, who better than to pick a new CEO than an ex? The response was swift and varied wildly, depending on which way the ex-Yahoo felt the company should go, from a basic turnaround expert to–drum roll, please–his digital Holiness, Steve Jobs of Apple. No kidding.

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With Yahoo board Chairman Roy Bostock reportedly assuring investors and others that the company will have a CEO in place by the end of the year, it seems prudent for BoomTown to initiate an official Yahoo CEO Countdown.

After all, this column had a 100-Day No-Sacred-Cows Vision Quest to mark the time that Jerry Yang said he needed to give Yahoo a top-to-bottom look-see when he took over last summer as CEO.

So here’s today’s update: No Peter Chernin and a lot of thorny issues for other candidates.

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Former Yahoo tech star Qi Lu is poised to take on the big job of being Microsoft’s top digital executive, according to several sources inside and outside the company.

The appointment could be announced as early as next Monday.

A variety of details is still being ironed out, including whether the well-regarded techie Lu will be “paired” with another executive at Microsoft with more general business experience.

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Here’s part of an internal memo BoomTown obtained about some small, but interesting, changes at Microsoft’s MSN unit, sent out by the GM of its Global Media Group, Greg Nelson, which is under the leadership of–well, frankly–a confusing panoply of people.

That’s why I have been haranguing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a little digital clarity, especially around its consumer digital businesses and brands.

Ballmer has been searching for an overall head of that business, and it will fall to the person he ultimately selects as digital head to figure out what to do next.

Until then, let’s rearrange some chairs!

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Yesterday, BoomTown opined that Microsoft was nearing a decision on who would become the head of its digital efforts.

And, according to several sources and some puzzling by me–if the deal can be sealed–I think that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s top choice is former Yahoo tech star Qi Lu.

If Ballmer manages to pull off the hire of Lu–on the heels of already grabbing another top Yahoo search exec, Sean Suchter, which I posted on yesterday–the aggressive exec could almost be bypassing a Yahoo search partnership he has long sought by sucking the talent right out of the place instead.

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At least Yahoo got one day of stock euphoria, on the news that its CEO Jerry Yang was stepping down, before Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped yet another bomb on the troubled Internet giant by saying once more with feeling that he is not at all interested in buying it.

Yahoo shares plummeted on the news, dropping below $10 a share to close at $9.14, down $2.41 or an astonishing 21 percent.

While lack of interest in acquiring Yahoo is a sentiment that Ballmer has expressed more times than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said “maverick” in the presidential campaign, Wall Street continues to hold out hope that Microsoft might swoop in and make a new bid for all of Yahoo.

It will not. Let’s repeat. It. Will. Not.

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BoomTown might have been remiss in my post yesterday on top candidates for the Yahoo CEO job, in the wake of news that Jerry Yang was stepping down, by leaving out several key possibilities.

Yesterday’s roster included News Corp.’s Peter Chernin, Google’s Tim Armstrong, Kevin Johnson of Juniper Networks and also two Yahoo board members, among others.

So here is an addendum to my initial list–all of whom are Yahoo outsiders, the likely choice versus more tarnished insiders.

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Obviously, the dream CEO for Yahoo is News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin.

And, no surprise, he is the No. 1 choice of most inside and outside Yahoo in the wake of the news late yesterday that its current CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang is stepping down.

Well, Yahoo would certainly be a challenge for Chernin, in terms of a corporate cleanup challenge, especially compared to figuring out how to make bank on plush toys from “The Simpsons.”

But there are many other contenders for the job, despite the slog it could be. Here’s BoomTown’s list…

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Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will step down from his job as CEO, said sources close to the company, as soon as the board finds a replacement for him, in what sources close to the situation call a joint decision by him and the directors.

Yahoo will announce the move later today. [UPDATED: Yahoo has since confirmed the move.]

Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles, the well-known executive search firm, to vet candidates, both internally and externally, to take over the top spot at the troubled Internet giant.

Sources said it is unlikely current Yahoo President Sue Decker will get the job, which is more likely to go to an outsider.

Some BoomTown choices: News Corp. COO Peter Chernin, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman or former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig.

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Another week, another nonpick for the still-outstanding position to lead Microsoft’s digital business.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has cast about for more than three months, both internally and externally, for the person who will turbocharge Microsoft’s Web efforts, but no one has emerged a favorite.

Nonetheless, new prospects include former Cisco exec and current Joost CEO Mike Volpi, sources said.

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Longtime Microsoft exec Yusuf Mehdi is taking over a big part of Microsoft’s online services portfolio–including marketing, business development and product management for MSN and the search properties.

But Microsoft has yet to name an overall digital head for these online properties, which has been promised by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer since the departure of Kevin Johnson in late July.

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Time waits for no man–but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer seems to be taking an awful lot of it in picking who will head the software giant’s long-foundering digital efforts.

Two months after the departure of former top exec Kevin Johnson, most inside the company had expected Ballmer to make the most obvious internal choice of SVP Brian McAndrews. Longtime digital SVP Yusuf Medhi has been seen as the No. 2 candidate.

But many sources report that Ballmer remains more intent on hiring someone outside the company, with the idea that such a person could better re-energize Microsoft’s moribund Internet efforts and bring in a fresher perspective.

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There will be a lot of different reactions to the first of Microsoft’s newest series of commercials, featuring Founder Bill Gates playing straight man to comic Jerry Seinfeld.

Set up as a discount shoe-buying skit, Seinfeld helps Gates purchase a pair called “The Conquistador,” and for some Seinfeldesque reason, it’s churros all around in this marketing effort.

What might be more effective, of course, at least in the Internet arena, is for Microsoft to get off the stick and lay out its next Web strategy clearly, especially in the wake of its failed attempt to acquire Yahoo, and name the digital chief it said it planned to.

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