6 ms·

Microsoft Hires 14 Yahoo Researchers to Kickstart New NYC Research Lab

67 points by gmodena 14y ago

noelwelsh 14y ago
Wow, MSR got some really good people out of this. Yahoo! have had a great research lab, but with the recent layoffs and now this it looks like it's on the way out. MS has shown they commercialise products out of MSR (e.g. the Kinect) so this could have a big impact in a few years.
- ljlolel 14y ago
  Underlying technology of Kinect came from a different research lab.
CodeCube 14y ago
Awesome. Hope they open the kimono and invite people in for meetups from time to time :)
kmregan 14y ago
John Langford's comments on the subject: http://hunch.net/?p=2341 http://hunch.net/?p=2341
rbanffy 14y ago
Yahoo has more pressing issues than research. A shift of focus away from research was to be expected after the last reorg.
- untog 14y ago
  Yes, but it's a sign of a company in decline. Research is what keeps you at the forefront of your industry- at this point no-one is expecting Yahoo to do that, but it's still sad.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    Not always. It's extremely hard to integrate an internal R&D department into a product pipeline. Id your research organization is detached from the rest of the company, its work will not be as readily integrated into the products other divisions make.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- robrenaud 14y ago
  They came from NY.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- scott_s 14y ago
  While there are exceptions, you generally need the research merit badge - a PhD. If it's something you seriously want to do, consider entering grad school.
neuro 14y ago
David Pennock Morgan Stanley Process Driven Trading, New York, NY, May 2008 Many quants have moved to silicon alley/valley from wallstreet due to the spectacular crash of 2007. Curiously, there have been much chatter about a crash in the tech sector lately - strange attractors.
dude_abides 14y ago
This is awesome news. Microsoft Research already has a great set of theorists in their New England lab, but clearly they were missing resident sociologists/economists. They can't have hoped for a richer haul than what they just landed here, that too in one shot. Also this just proves further (in case anyone doubted) that Microsoft is in the game for the long haul.
ahi 14y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_and_Strogatz_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_and_Strogatz_model Serious pickup for MS.

67 points by gmodena 14y ago

Wow, MSR got some really good people out of this. Yahoo! have had a great research lab, but with the recent layoffs and now this it looks like it's on the way out. MS has shown they commercialise products out of MSR (e.g. the Kinect) so this could have a big impact in a few years.

ljlolel 14y ago
Underlying technology of Kinect came from a different research lab.

CodeCube 14y ago

Awesome. Hope they open the kimono and invite people in for meetups from time to time :)

kmregan 14y ago

John Langford's comments on the subject: http://hunch.net/?p=2341 http://hunch.net/?p=2341

rbanffy 14y ago

Yahoo has more pressing issues than research. A shift of focus away from research was to be expected after the last reorg.

untog 14y ago
Yes, but it's a sign of a company in decline. Research is what keeps you at the forefront of your industry- at this point no-one is expecting Yahoo to do that, but it's still sad.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Not always. It's extremely hard to integrate an internal R&D department into a product pipeline. Id your research organization is detached from the rest of the company, its work will not be as readily integrated into the products other divisions make.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

robrenaud 14y ago
They came from NY.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
scott_s 14y ago
While there are exceptions, you generally need the research merit badge - a PhD. If it's something you seriously want to do, consider entering grad school.

neuro 14y ago

David Pennock Morgan Stanley Process Driven Trading, New York, NY, May 2008 Many quants have moved to silicon alley/valley from wallstreet due to the spectacular crash of 2007. Curiously, there have been much chatter about a crash in the tech sector lately - strange attractors.

dude_abides 14y ago

This is awesome news. Microsoft Research already has a great set of theorists in their New England lab, but clearly they were missing resident sociologists/economists. They can't have hoped for a richer haul than what they just landed here, that too in one shot. Also this just proves further (in case anyone doubted) that Microsoft is in the game for the long haul.

ahi 14y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_and_Strogatz_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_and_Strogatz_model Serious pickup for MS.