Yahoo Research Center: Advancing PaaS through Science and Engineering
Established in June 2009, the Yahoo Research Center serves as a hub for innovation where science and engineering converge. With a dedicated workforce of nearly 400 full-time researchers and engineers, the center is driven by a mission to advance Platform as a Service (PaaS)—a cloud computing model that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.
Key Facts
- Founded: June 2009
- Workforce: Nearly 400 full-time researchers and engineers
- Core Mission: Advancing Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Primary Research Pillars: Personalization, Advertising, Mobile, and Cloud Computing
Core Research Areas
The center maintains a rigorous research agenda divided into four strategic domains, each designed to improve user experience and system efficiency.
Personalization
Research in personalization focuses on modeling content understanding, user interests, and behavior. By utilizing machine-learning ranking—the process of using algorithms to determine the most relevant order of content—the center aims to better select, match, and sort information to align with user preferences.
To support this, a specialized learning infrastructure was developed to streamline the engineering life cycle. This system manages everything from user activity instrumentation and signal collection to feature extraction, model training, offline evaluation, and online bucket testing.
Advertising
The center conducts critical research to optimize the digital ad ecosystem. This includes advancements in targeted advertising, which delivers ads to specific audiences based on traits, as well as real-time bidding and search advertising technologies.
Mobile
In the mobile sector, the center focuses on the foundational elements of the mobile experience. This includes the development of mobile backend services, applications, and Mobile SDKs (Software Development Kits), which are the basic building blocks used by developers to create software for mobile platforms.
Cloud Computing
The cloud computing division builds the infrastructure necessary for big data platforms. These platforms enable predictive analytics, real-time insights, and next-generation mathematical models. By improving service containers to scale both horizontally (adding more machines) and vertically (adding more power to existing machines) across abstraction layers, the center ensures high efficiency.
Furthermore, the center developed a next-generation data storage system capable of supporting multi-petabyte scale data. This system provides essential storage services for major platforms including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, and Flickr.
| Research Area | Primary Focus | Key Technologies/Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Personalization | User behavior and content matching | Machine-learning ranking, learning infrastructure |
| Advertising | Ad delivery and auctioning | Targeted advertising, real-time bidding |
| Mobile | App development foundations | Mobile SDKs, backend services |
| Cloud Computing | Big data and scalability | Multi-petabyte storage, horizontal/vertical scaling |
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the research center founded?
The center was founded in June 2009.
How many staff members work at the center?
The center employs almost 400 full-time researchers and engineers.
What is the primary mission of the center?
The center operates under a mission of Platform as a Service (PaaS) through a combination of science and engineering.
Which Yahoo services benefit from the center's cloud storage research?
The next-generation data storage system offers services to Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, and Flickr.
What does the personalization research aim to achieve?
It seeks to improve the selection, matching, and sorting of content by understanding user interests and behavior through machine-learning ranking.