Ronny Lempel, Chief Data Scientist, Yahoo! Labs, Israel, drew an extremely engaged audience from across industry and academia at his recent Big Thinkers session in Bangalore. Ronny’s talk kicked off the Yahoo! Big Thinkers India Series for 2013, a well-regarded lecture series by Yahoo! Labs on cutting edge areas in science, technology and the Internet. Ronny’s topic was Recommendation Challenges in Web Media Settings. He spoke about how recommendation technology is at the core of the effort to personalize media consumption on the Web, be it news stories or streaming music. Outlining research challenges and trends in the art of recommendation technology, Ronny said, “The key problem researchers are looking at involve the ability to suggest sequences, frame the user’s context, find people with similar interests and, finally, recommend to people things their friends have experienced.” 

With Yahoo!’s focus on building highly personalized experiences that connect people to what matters most to them, technologies like recommender systems are central to personalizing user experience. Ronny’s visit to India served to highlight Yahoo!’s thought leadership in research and science, and how it links to our business, in this case personalization and ad targeting.

The talk brought together over 130 researchers and practitioners around the emerging topics of recommender systems from leading tech companies like GE, Bosch, Siemens and Flipkart, along with several start-ups. “This kind of participation stimulates an exchange of ideas among the top minds in industry and academia and promotes a culture of open collaboration,” said Dr. Sridhar Mitta, an industry veteran and founder of NextWealth, who attended the talk. 

During his visit, Ronny also visited IIT-Bombay, a top tech college in India, where he guided several students on their research topics around recommendation technology.

His interactions through his India visit were characterized by deep technical discussions in research areas like Recommendation Technology, evolution of big data and the challenges of maintaining a balance between personalization and contextualization of the Internet. On his role as Chief Data Scientist, Yahoo! Labs, Ronny Lempel explained, “It is about looking at the areas where Yahoo! Labs interacts with our product groups to develop Yahoo! products. A lot of it has to do with personalization and ad targeting, which has a big reliance on recommendation technology. Machine learning, natural language processing and search technologies are all aspects that are important as to me as Chief Data Scientist. Beyond that, I also interact with our systems teams to define what the next generation of big data computational systems might look like or what is missing in our current generation of systems.”

Ahead of his Big Thinkers session, Ronny interacted with the media and was featured in-depth in some of India’s leading mainstream and financial dailies. You can see a snapshot of the coverage below:

Personalization and ad targeting rely on recommendation – The Financial Express 
Big data is not a new thing: Ronny Lempel – Mint
Yahoo! bets big on personal recommendations – Deccan Chronicle

The Yahoo! Employee Foundation (YEF) is a grassroots, philanthropic organization that brings together the talents, time, and financial resources of Yahoo! employees to serve the needs of communities around the globe.  Yahoos can not only volunteer their time, but they can work with YEF to champion grants for causes they are passionate about.  

Jill Sewill, a Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, wanted to help 200 music students achieve their dream of seeing a live symphony, so YEF - thanks to donations from Yahoos all over the world - made it happen!  

Check out this wonderful Thank You Video from the Washington Manor Middle School Music Boosters, who received a YEF grant to take a field trip to see the San Francisco Symphony.The kids had a great time, and it’s amazing to see the impact that grants can have when they are targeted through engaged Yahoo! Employee Champions!

At Yahoo!, Master Inventor Awards are given to recognize and reward some of the company’s top innovators. The criteria are not just about the number of patents, but also the inventor's contribution to innovation and their capacity and experience in mentorship. We had a chance to interview some of them on their great work and suggestions to junior inventors.

Why is Yahoo! a good place for developers and inventors?
Peter Mika: Yahoo! is a great place for inventors of all kinds. Yahoo! Labs in particular is unique in the industry in that it's renown both for scientific excellence externally and for having a huge impact on Yahoo!'s businesses.

Tarun Bhatia: It’s a great place for developers and engineers. There’s much room for creative solutions. We have many interesting problems with the potential of meaningful impact, large amounts of data, adequate resources, and a unique and fun culture. I love how many disciplines we embrace to solve our business challenges – economics, social sciences, artificial intelligence, distributed computing, etc. Each day is like being back in school, only better.

What are you working on now?
Tarun Bhatia: Right now, I’m trying to see if we can real-time assess how we affect a user with each interaction in a session. This has significant marketplace implications. Imagine how effectively we could delight our users and advertisers if every serve-time decision is consciously informed by this assessment.

What advice do you have for more junior inventors?
Ron Jacoby: Find something you are passionate about.  Work to really understand the current state of technology and business of that market. Find the opportunities that exist. Develop your ideas and plan. And never take No as a final answer; use it as feedback to further develop your ideas and pitch.

Tarun Bhatia: Best advice I received was - write it down. Apart from that, encourage yourself to cover a problem outside your area of focus with a fresh perspective. Think of where else your solutions may apply. Do this often.

Ricardo Baeza -Yates: Do not plan your life. Just do your best and unthinkable opportunities will cross your life path.

Yoelle Maarek: Think simple, think user. Don't think like an engineer or scientist – think about your mom, your kids, would they understand the value of your invention, would they want to use it.

By David Filo, Co-founder of Yahoo!

This past weekend, we celebrated Yahoo!’s 18th birthday. A birthday is a good time to reflect on the experiences that have helped shape you. This one is no different.

That’s why our birthday was the perfect time to bring together Yahoos from around the world for our quarterly Hackday. We created our first Hackday in 2005, bringing some of our most eager minds together in an all-night coding session. I’m proud that this tradition has continued.

Hackday Final Presentation at Sunnyvale                  

Hackdays are special for Yahoos -- as much a part of our history as our birthday itself. Hackers from all over the world come together for 24 hours to create something truly special. The experience is memorable, not only for the eccentricities, but also for the inspiring hacks that Yahoos create. Some hacks have become full-fledged products, like Yahoo! Weather for Android.
 

For our 18th birthday, we decided to turn our Hackday up a notch. We challenged hackers to focus on making our core products more inspiring, entertaining and innovative.

We were blown away by the number of Yahoos, diversity of hacks and creative energy. And, in fact, we broke a hack-to-product record by integrating the winning hack into our existing products within just a few days of its victory. This winning hack intelligently helps users find a web page when they have an incomplete URL for that page. Y! Canada News and Y! Sports blog are already live with this new feature.

 
Hackday Winners with David Filo and Yahoo! Develop Network

We also broke another record -- it was our biggest Hackday in the history of Yahoo!. Yahoos participated from nine offices across six time zones, all the way from Sunnyvale to Singapore, and from Norway to India.

We’re excited to turn our hacks into products, so stay tuned to see what’s in the pipeline.

Happy 18th Birthday, Yahoo!. Here’s to many more ..

The original post is from Yahoo! Yodel Blog

By Bob Upham

Earlier this month, I had the honor of attending the American Heart Association’s School Plant Day in San Francisco. The Yahoo! Employee Foundation (YEF) had given them an employee championed grant for this project in 2012, and the money provided allowed the American Heart Association to teach San Francisco grammar school children about planting, nurturing, harvesting and preparing fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs through their Teaching Gardens program. Many of these children have little or no opportunity to watch a seedling grow into a plant that yields edible fruits or vegetables. While they are learning about growing techniques, they are also given lessons on nutrition and sustainable food sources.

It was a pleasure to be part of the inauguration of this program at the Garfield Elementary School in SF. Everyone involved - school administrators, volunteers, parents, representatives from the American Heart Association and the children - was so happy to have received this grant from YEF. When I was asked to say a few words about YEF, I mistakenly assumed my audience would be adult donors and friends of the American Heart Association -- not one hundred 3rd, 4th and 5th graders! I loved hearing all these kids yell out YAHOOOOO!!! as I was introduced. The next generation of Yahoo! users is ready!

There are many rewards to serving as Grants Co-chair on the YEF board, but the greatest one is seeing first-hand how the money donated by our fellow Yahoo! employees is put to work. We are very proud of the life-changing opportunities we are able to bring to our community!  

Tilo, Erika, David, Mike and Sheilesha are a group of New College Grads (NCGs) who joined Yahoo! after their internship. It was not a difficult decision because of the opportunity to work with smart people, build great products, make a global impact and enjoy the fun culture. Interns and NCGs are given meaningful projects and treated like an equal from Day One. Erika was told to push code to production when she just joined the team. "It's going out to Yahoo!, second week of the job!"
 
What made Kelly, the Senior Director of Engineering of Media Verticals, exciting about the future of Yahoo! was “We are hiring new blood and young people” who will “revolutionize our products”.  Kelly has been working at Yahoo! Sports for almost 15 years. “At Yahoo!, you have a lot of opportunities: tying your passion with your profession…If you can prove you are smart and responsible, you’ll work on something great. You’ll build products that your parents and friends see that you are going to be proud of.”
 
Interested? We need talent that will innovate, experiment and make an immediate impact. Come and talk to our University Recruiting team at one of the campus visits to learn our Internship or NCG program. Or you can apply for intern positions directly from here: Technical Summer Internship!

“It's possible to love your job and get a good salary too: You just have to work for the right company!” Yahoo! was ranked 8/50 best employers in America on the first annual report by PayScale and Business Insider, which evaluates companies by both pay and happiness. Companies in the 2012 Fortune 500 were ranked using PayScale's salary and survey database. According to the report, “happiness represented 57 percent of the final score and was measured through questions about satisfaction, feelings of meaningfulness, stress, and schedule flexibility. Pay represented 43 percent of the final score and was measured by looking at median pay after five years and pay compared to industry peers.”

For Yahoo!, “employees report very high rates of relaxation (46%) and flexibility (88%); high rates of satisfaction (81%); and average rates of meaningfulness (55%). Median pay is very high at $120,000 after five years, and high compared to industry peers.” One of the important factors that make people love to work at Yahoo! is our killer perks that inspire employees and cultivate great team spirit beyond work. Our offices have on-site fitness centers with yoga, cardio-kickboxing, pilates and golf classes. The offices are also equipped with ergonomic support chairs for enhanced comfort. “Yahoo! makes a specific and deliberate effort to make sure that we’re not just creating cool experiences for the world, but we’re also thinking about the experiences of the employees that are here,” says Regina who works with her personal trainer on site to balance work and fitness. Outside the office, Yahoo provides employees with discounts to ski resorts and California theme parks, and Yahoo co-workers even take trips together after work!

Another factor that really matters is our Yahoo! Employee Foundation (YEF), a grassroots, philanthropic organization that brings together the talents, time, and financial resources of Yahoo! employees to serve the needs of communities around the globe. YEF provides various opportunities in a plenty of ways that employees can participate and give back to communities that they truly care about. 

We are thrilled that we were recognized in the 50 best US employers report and it’s our commitment to continuously inspire and satisfy our employees by great products we make and healthy work/life choices we provide.

For the full report, please visit Business Insider for more information

Amazing Yahoos in the above picture are our YEF members in the Champaign Office. They created school supply kits for a back to school program run by a local child care facility. Going from left to right: Greg Muchnik, Maulik Shah, Haley Thrapp, Robert Pratte (in back), David Willcox (in orange), Mark Holderbaugh, Venkat Kasarla, Dave Thompson, Jon Kilroy, Ravi Prakash (on knees), Scott Honnigford (in back), Allie Watfa, Krishna Appadurai, Jason Lowe, Robert Parker.

Our Hong Kong office recently became Ocean Park Conservation Foundation’s Online Conservation Partner for 2013.  We sponsored banner inventory on their portal for their annual Conservation Day fundraising, and are mobilizing our strong force of Yahoo! Charity+ members to give 252 man-hours for this meaningful cause.  Marine conservation has been a steady uptrend in Hong Kong in recent years, partly reflected by the phenomenon that more young couples are saying ‘no’ to shark fin soup at wedding banquets. 

The Conservation Day was recently held in January and this year’s theme was Seahorse Conservation. Jenny Li, acting general manager of Yahoo! Hong Kong (first left in the below picture) joined the event’s kick-off ceremony and received a thank you certificate from the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation on stage.

On the same weekend, 24 Yahoo! users joined forces at Ocean Park, delighting children and parents with colorful seahorse body paintings and a mini workshop teaching them how to make seahorse keychains with pipe-cleaners, while sharing with them the basics about seahorse conservation.  An exclusive dolphin encounter at the Park’s background vet center was arranged for the volunteers in return for their great effort.

Cleo Ma, one of the volunteers wrote to us after the event, saying: “Thank you very much for Yahoo!'s arrangement on Jan 12.  The event was very fruitful and I had a lots of fun volunteering at the game booth as well as the dolphins' visit!!  Once again, thanks for the enjoyable event and I look forward to hear from Yahoo! soon.”

This was our first CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative in 2013.  Since its launch in Q2 2011, Yahoo! Charity+ has built up a membership base of over 1,200 members and has mobilized over 100 man-counts of users to participate in a range of CSR activities thus far.  We look forward to continuing our contributions to the well-being of our local community and offering more fun and meaningful experiences for Yahoo! Charity+ members.

What does hacking mean to Yahoos? To Anil Patel, Yahoo! Developer Outreach and Community Manager, it’s not trying to break into a security system or another computer, but to transfer great ideas to products in a short period of time. With the first event back in 2005, Hackday has become a strong pipeline for innovation, giving employees an opportunity to play with the technology beyond what people can use today. To Erik Suhonen, Head of the Yahoo! Developer Network, Hackday is a chance for people to learn from each other and build a great internal community. Yahoos stay up all night, listen to the music and hack until dawn. “There’s so much positive energy in the room!” said by one of our Hackday winners. Want to learn more about Yahoo!’s hacking spirit? Please join our very own Yahoo! Develop Network at developer.yahoo.com. 

By Yolanda
Person-Collins

From early November till late December, our Yahoo! Burbank office organized “Frozen Turkey Drive” donations for Thanksgiving as well as Non-Perishable Food, Toys and Socks drives during the Christmas season as part of their efforts to support the local communities.

Our Thanksgiving drive is mainly to support the Burbank Temporary AID Center (BTAC). Thanks to the generosity of our employees, we surpassed donations from 2011 and provided BTAC with close to $1000 as a new record! We were also able to donate 382 non-perishable food items to BTAC to help feed local, needy families.

“Socks are the most requested article of clothing from homeless people,” says Rondo Mieczkowski, who dropped them off to the non-profit Under The Bridges and On The Streets. “The donation helped keep a lot of needy people warm into the New Year.” All together, 158 pairs of socks were donated, as well as a generous, but anonymous, $100 cash donation. Thanks to a 30% off coupon, that $100 was used to purchase an additional 114 pairs, bringing the total number of pairs of socks donated to 272, a new record! 

The toys were distributed by the Burbank Fire Department, in collaboration with the BTAC and the Family Service Agency. The agencies screened local families for need and worked hard to make sure the right toy got to the right child. We received 129 toys from our employees while another $100 anonymous donation was used to purchase additional toys.

A total of 37 thank you cards were collected and sent to the United Service Organizations (USO). Cards were included in USO Care Packages sent to active members of our Armed Forces, as well as veterans in hospitals and nursing homes. The cutest cards were those created by children of Burbank Yahoos, of course!

We are very proud that we as a company can give back to our local communities through the annual Winter Holiday Drives. We are also very thankful to our employees who helped improve the lives of many people!