Category: Search engines

Here's a more technical (and much longer!) post than usual - some thoughts about web search relevance, which may help explain why I ended up at Powerset. Relevance Improvements (large and small) I've been working in web search since 2000 (Excite, Inktomi, Yahoo, and now Powerset). During that time, I've seen lots of new techniques… Continue reading Proximity is a hack →

Whew. In December I blogged that I was leaving Yahoo! for a new job, and had every intention of following up with news about the new job and the new company just as soon as I started. But the next time I look up I find that it's ... June(!). I guess new jobs have… Continue reading Working at Powerset →

I blogged previously about the Influentials Speaker Series that Yahoo! puts on for its employees. I was very very impressed by the influentiality of our previous speakers, most notably Tom Cruise, who is always a strong influence for me whenever I play loud music at home alone. But I am proud to say that the… Continue reading The Influentials Speaker Series takes it to the next level →

If you happened to be walking by Yahoo!'s Santa Clara campus in the last couple of weeks, you might have seen a few hundred geeks (me included) flushed out of their dens, and blinking in the unfamiliar sunshine.

In what way is the Mission Impossible theme music unusual? (Hint: it would be especially obvious in a written score.)

I'll admit that I'm a little bit embarrassed by the latest speaker to be invited to Yahoo!'s campus. The embarrassment is compounded by the name of the speaker series: The Influentials. Just as a reality check, let's take a quick spin through the original reasons for fame of three of our Influential speakers: Tom Brokaw:… Continue reading The Influential Tom Cruise →

A true story: soon after Yahoo's purchase of Inktomi, a hundred of us Inktomites took a day trip to Sunnyvale for a mass orientation. In addition to the usual HR informational stuff that any new hire would get, there were good inspirational talks about Yahoo's commitment to search, which we were beginning to believe. By… Continue reading Why I can never leave Yahoo! →