Yahoo replaces Labs with the launch of Research
Yahoo has announced the launch of Yahoo Research, which will be responsible for developing and pushing research-led products into the market.
Under Yahoo Research, the company will integrate its research teams directly with its product teams, as well as establish an independent research team that will work autonomously or in partnership with product partners.
In a blog post, Yoelle Maarek, vice president of Research, wrote that she and Ben Shahshahani, Yahoo Labs Advertising Sciences vice president, have been appointed to lead the research activities across the company.
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As a result of the launch of Research, the company's Labs organisation will be dissolved, according to Maarek, and in turn Yahoo's chief scientist and head of labs Ron Brachman, and vice president of Research Ricardo Baeza-Yates, will be leaving the company.
"They have shaped much of the scientific innovation at Yahoo and leave behind a legacy that will continue to guide us as we stretch the boundaries of innovation. We cannot thank them enough for their outstanding contributions to Yahoo," Maarek wrote about Brachman's and Baeza-Yates' departure.
Maarek also reassured the relationship Labs has built with the global community of researchers and academics will remain unhindered.
"We will continue to publish scholarly works, participate in global scientific fora, and share our research around Yahoo-related findings that can benefit the larger community on our soon-to-be-relaunched website, research.yahoo.com," she said.
In January, Yahoo published 13.5 terabytes of machine learning dataset for the academic research community.
At the time, Suju Rajan, director of research at Yahoo Labs, said the motivation behind publishing the dataset was to encourage innovation, especially in regards to how data from machine learning technologies can be turned around and used for new purposes.
"Many academic researchers and data scientists don't have access to truly large-scale datasets because it is traditionally a privilege reserved for large companies," she said.