Organization:Yahoo! Labs
| Formation | March 4, 2008[1] |
|---|---|
| Type | Contract research organization |
| Location |
|
| Website | www |
Yahoo! Labs[2] served as Yahoo!'s research arm, aiming to develop research in technologies to be used within the company. Yahoo! Labs includes approximately 200 research scientists and engineers.
Yahoo! Labs was headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA; it had three additional locations worldwide: New York City , London, and Haifa. Yahoo Labs Barcelona was closed in early 2015.
On February 17, 2016, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo! Labs was being replaced with Yahoo! Research.[3]
History
In July 2005, Usama Fayyad (Yahoo!’s Chief Data Officer), Prabhakar Raghavan, Andrew Tomkins, Kevin Lang and other employees who were working for the former "Yahoo! Research Labs" organization formed the new research team. Raghavan was named as Head of Yahoo! Research. Ronald J. Brachman, having finished a term as office director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), joined as the head of worldwide research operations in early September. The team was soon joined by Andrei Broder and Ricardo Baeza-Yates.
Yahoo! Labs was formed in 2008 through a proposal by Ronald Brachman and Larry Heck from the "Yahoo! Search and Advertising Sciences Lab". The proposal combined the two labs into a single organization. In 2012, Ron Brachman took over as Head of "Yahoo! Labs" and also became Yahoo's chief scientist.
"Yahoo! Labs" also includes two groups unrelated to research:
Academic Partnerships
Academic Partnerships at Yahoo! Labs builds relationships with select academic research institutions and fosters collaborative research by sharing datasets for research, hosting academic visits & talks and funding project grants and merit-based awards. Additionally, the team aids Yahoo! with graduate student sourcing and helps inform the company on strategic opportunities and insights from the external research community.[4]
Operations
Operations at Yahoo! Labs is responsible for managing the day-to-day processes and procedures. The Operations team leads Yahoo! corporate initiatives on behalf of the Labs and tracks progress for Labs' goals. Furthermore, the Operations team is responsible for managing Yahoo! Labs' finances, recruiting efforts, events, and communications.
Research areas
Yahoo! Labs delved into diverse and impactful research areas, each playing a pivotal role in advancing digital frontiers. Advertising science is a focus, aiming to unravel the intricacies of persuasion and audience captivation. Content understanding involves decoding the language of information, while data science extracts valuable insights from the digital realm. Image and video understanding broaden comprehension beyond pixels, enhancing the interpretation of visual content.[4]
Information Retrieval is a key domain, guiding the navigation through vast seas of data, making it accessible and manageable. Machine learning stands as a cornerstone, empowering computers to dynamically learn and evolve. Metrics and User Engagement serve as essential barometers, measuring success in the dynamic online landscape. Natural Language & Dialogue Understanding strengthens human-machine communication, fostering seamless interaction.
Optimization and feedback control fine-tune systems within Yahoo Labs for peak performance, ensuring efficiency in technological processes. Scalable Systems form a robust foundation, facilitating digital expansion and accommodating growth seamlessly. User Modeling and Personalization contribute to tailoring experiences, crafting personalized digital journeys within the diverse research spectrum of Yahoo Labs.[4]
Notable accomplishments
- Best Paper award winners at KDD, UIST, SocInfo, and CIKM in 2013; SPAA, Hypertext, UbiComp, MobileHCI, and RecSys in 2014; ECIR, ICWSM, and ICML in 2015
- 96 patents issued to Yahoo! Labs inventors in 2013 and 2014, and 50+ in 2015
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), IEEE, AAAI, and Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) fellows and distinguished members; past president of AAAI
- General and PC chairs at leading conferences
- Past and current editors, associate editors, and editors-in-chief of leading scientific journals[4]
- Authors and editors of academic and popular press books
- Member of the board of directors and treasurer of the Computing Research Association (CRA)
References
- ↑ "Yahoo! Inc. - Company Timeline". Wayback Machine. 2008-07-13. http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/timeline.cfm.
- ↑ "Yahoo Labs"
- ↑ "Yahoo!'s New Research Model"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Yahoo Research - Careers". https://research.yahoo.com/careers. "Yahoo Labs serves as Yahoo’s research arm–its incubator for bold new ideas and laboratory for rigorous experimentation. Yahoo Labs applies its scientific findings in powering products for Yahoo’s users and enhancing value for its partners and advertisers. Our forward-looking innovation also helps position Yahoo as an industry and scientific thought leader..."
External links
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