Yahoo! has formed Yahoo! Research Labs, a research organization focused on inventing new technologies and solutions. The organization will study topics such as pay for performance search, web search,
vertical businesses and platform technologies. The organization will be led by Yahoo!'s Head and Principal Scientist Dr. Gary William Flake, former chief science officer of Overture and founder of
Overture Research. Dr. Flake joined Yahoo! with the acquisition of Overture in 2003. Prior to joining Overture, he was a research scientist at NEC Research Institute and the leader of its web
data-mining program.