An Interactive Session with Dr. Bharath Kadaba

Archive Post posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 11:57 am.

Today I was very fortunate to spend time and interact with the Vice President of Media Engineering at Yahoo! - Dr. Bharath Kadaba.

The morning started at 7:30 with a breakfast and interactive question and answer session. Dr. Kadaba highlighted on a few subjects that I felt were very interesting.

• At one point Yahoo! did not feel searches were important. Now they realize they are a vital element to the user’s experience on the world wide web.
  
  
• Yahoo is the leader in the new media revolution because their gameplan is to give the user the most power.
  
  
• AJAX is the cornerstone of the Yahoo! experience. For example with MyYahoo!, you can create your own assorted listing of news sources, sports, audio, and more.
  
  
• More than 50 of Yahoo!’s employees hold Doctorates, which I found very pleasing.
  
  
• The transition for Yahoo! from Web 1.0 to 2.0 is still in the process, but it is increasing daily.

After the breakfast I was able to attend his presentation - “Yahoo! - Leading the New Media Revolution”. The presentation focused primarily on Yahoo!’s approach toward social mediums. A few points that I found interesting were:

• Yahoo! News is the leader in Internet news. That’s right folks, Google, CNN, MSNBC, and the rest are beneath them.
  
  
• For the first time in 450 years, users are contributing to the media.
  
  
• For the first time in 53 years, the 14-under demographic is watching less TV.
  
  
• An innovative push Yahoo! is bringing is through Flickr. Now, as events happen in realtime, photos can be posted to give you an up close and personal account of the event. An example presented was the London bombings that took place awhile back. I find this to be a very innovative approach.
  
  
• Yahoo! is continually working on new programs and services to get the user involved. The recently launched Yahoo! Answers gives users the ability to ask a question. Then, other users of the service can answer the question. If you asked the question, yourself and other viewers can rank the best answers accordingly. Originally Yahoo! Answers was tested overseas before making its debut in the US earlier this year.

At the end of the presentation, Dr. Kadaba presented myself, Chris Pund, and Michael Patton with Certificates of Appreciation from the Governor of Virginia - Tim Kaine. The certificates were to show appreciation for our efforts at the 2006 PBL National Leadership Conference.

All in all this morning has been vividly informative and has added details to my open-stary eyed approach to Web 2.0, the user experience, and where exactly I can fit in with the best of the best on the Internet. Could I see myself working for Yahoo! one day? Honestly, I do. There are some really snazzy approaches Yahoo! is taking and I personally feel that I could bring the user experience to the next level.

I’ll have pics up from this event soon!