By Yoelle Maarek, Vice President of Research

Recently we announced our efforts to make Yahoo a more focused company. This focus will let us accelerate the pace of innovation to make our products even better. We saw these changes as an opportunity to better align our research efforts, while preserving Yahoo’s culture of exploration and inquiry. As a result, we are reorganizing Yahoo Labs and moving forward with a new approach to research at Yahoo.

Our new approach is to integrate research teams directly into our product teams in order to produce innovation that will drive excellence in those product areas. We will also have an independent research team that will work autonomously or in partnership with product partners. The integrated and independent teams, as a whole, will be known as Yahoo Research. Yahoo Research will drive the company’s scientific efforts, look to the future, think out of the box, and be responsible for pushing the frontiers of the consumer internet. I will lead the independent research team, and together with Ben Shahshahani and the other integrated product research partners, will guide our research activities across the company.

Without a centralized Labs organization, Yahoo’s Chief Scientist, Head of Labs, and my mentor, Ron Brachman, and my fellow VP of Research and friend, 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.

Over the past decade, Yahoo’s scientists have built a strong relationship with the global community of researchers and academics. Our commitment there remains 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.

As we focus efforts across the company, our research scientists will, more than ever, be an invaluable resource to Yahoo and remain meaningful contributors to the global research community. We are thrilled to take on a new approach in which we will play an even more significant role and have the opportunity to innovate and help lead Yahoo toward a thriving future.