Hoping to overtake its rivals, Yahoo stocks up on academics

"..would be disappointed if Yahoo's effort didn't produce a Nobel Prize..."

[walkman]

"Messrs. Fayyad and Raghavan agreed Yahoo Research would tackle just a handful of areas, including search, the interaction of users online and an artificial-intelligence field known as machine learning, which involves analyzing past data to learn about the future. "The intent isn't to gaze at the skies," says Mr. Raghavan, 45.

....

Yahoo and other Internet companies already use some of what they know about consumers' online habits to target Internet advertising: A user who searches for "Ford Explorer" might see an ad for a sports-utility vehicle when he looks at a news Web site."

[moneyweb.co.za...]