Yahoo Getting Academic On Social Networking

May 10, 2007 at 9:26am ET by Barry Schwartz

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.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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2 COMMENTS ON Yahoo Getting Academic On Social Networking

AndrewGoodman, May 10th, 2007 at 10:26 am ET:

It’s always good to see the research component as a priority in a major search company.

Andy Redfern, May 10th, 2007 at 5:12 pm ET:

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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