Long Time Yahoo Search Scientist Jan Pedersen Joins Microsoft

By Matt McGee

Published: March 26, 2009 at 6:34 pm

The Yahoo-to-Microsoft defections continue with news today from paidContent.org that Jan Pedersen is the new chief scientist for Live Search.

This one isn’t exactly a defection, because Pedersen comes to Microsoft from Amazon’s A9.com. But he was Chief Scientist and VP, Search and Advertising Technology Group, at Yahoo prior to that. And before his Yahoo stint, Pedersen was with both Alta Vista and Infoseek.

He’s the latest in a string of ex-Yahoo’s to start working for Microsoft. Others include Sean Suchter, Dr. Qi Lu (who will be keynoting at SMX Advanced), and, most recently, Larry Heck.

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About the author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.