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May. 10, 2007 at 9:26am Eastern by Barry Schwartz
Yahoo Getting Academic On Social Networking
Yahoo hires economics, sociology researchers from News.com covers the news that Yahoo has hired two scientists to help in their social networking initiatives.
Dr. R. Preston McAfee and Dr. Duncan Watts are the two scientists Yahoo has hired to work in the Yahoo Research department. Dr. McAfee will be the vice president and research fellow leading Yahoo's microeconomics research group and Dr. Watts will be lead Yahoo's research in human social dynamics, which includes all of Yahoo's social networks initiatives. Yahoo has been vocal about integrating social media into their search algorithms, this move is just one more step towards that.
They hope that with these hires, Yahoo can begin to better "answer complex questions in areas including search and information navigation, social media, community, personalization, and mobility," according Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Research.
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By Barry Schwartz
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Reader Comments
Yahoo have been doing some great work in the social sphere for a year or so now; and I would think that their research on word of mouth marketing (WOMM pyramid) has had a direct effect on making Yahoo! Answers the great success it is today.
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It's always good to see the research component as a priority in a major search company.