Addition and Subtraction at Yahoo!

Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. has appointed a data mining expert, Dr. Raghu Ramakrishnan as Vice President and Yahoo! Research Fellow. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Business Developer Joseph Kam has left Yahoo! to join online measurement firm NetRatings.

Ramakrishnan joins Yahoo! from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he served as a professor of computer science and a co-founder of the Data Mining Institute. His new role includes guiding the strategy behind the firm's social search platform and adding his extensive experience in database systems and privacy issues.

Based in Sunnyvale, CA, he will report to the Head of Yahoo! Research, Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan. Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer and Senior VP, comments: 'We are proud and excited to have someone of Raghu's academic caliber and entrepreneurial approach to help Yahoo! Research with our commitment to building the new science of the Internet. He joins a rapidly growing assembly of the leading thinkers and scientists in key fields of this new emerging science who have chosen to join Yahoo! to deliver on this ambitious goal.'

Ramakrishnan co-founded and served as Chairman and CTO of QUIQ, a company that pioneered online question-answering communities. He is co-author of the widely-read text Database Management Systems (WCB/McGraw-Hill) and was recently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. He holds a Bachelor of Technology from IIT Madras and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Yahoo! is at www.yahoo.com .


Meanwhile, Internet audience measurement and analysis provider NetRatings, Inc. has appointed Joseph Kam, previously of the Overture division of Yahoo! Holdings (HK) Ltd, as its Business Development Director, Hong Kong.

He brings to the role extensive sales and management experience. Prior to his time as a Business Manager at Yahoo!, he worked at Sirius, Wharf T&T Ltd and PCCW - SecureNet Asia Ltd.

Forrest Didier, NetRatings' MD Asia-Pacific and Latin America, comments: 'The current business environment, in which clients across the online industry are seriously recognizing and leveraging the internet's unique accountability strengths, presents enormous challenges and opportunities, not only for us but for all players in the online industry who are aiming to increase the ROI of their online business. Joseph's appointment strengthens our commitment to deliver the much needed and currently unavailable high quality, independent internet data and measurement services to the Hong Kong online industry.'

NetRatings is online at www.netratings.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

• Nielsen//NetRatings Australia
• All news