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Yahoo's Jerry Yang quits the company he co-founded, walks away from Alibaba as well
The long, drawn-out, oftentimes melodramatic saga revolving around Yahoo itself and co-founder Jerry Yang is well-documented. Perhaps too well. Thankfully for us all, that ends today. As of January 17th, he has resigned from Yahoo's Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, and moreover, has resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited. We most recently heard from Yang during his interview at AsiaD, where he sounded none too pleased about the going-ons there. We aren't about to draw links of Yang's exit to the hiring of Scott Thompson as CEO (in fact, Yang praises him in his exit blurb), but we are drawing links to his sudden purchase of a yacht, a new sauna and a round-the-round journey courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent. Kidding. In all seriousness, it's no surprise to see Yahoo's stock rallying, as many felt that Yang was the major roadblock holding up an outright sale or other significant shake-up within its ranks. As for Jerry? He's off to "pursue other interests" -- but we didn't need to tell you that, now did we?
Yahoo Japan plans facial recognizing, content personalizing billboards
Sometimes it seems like the worlds of science and marketing are in a constant struggle to present us with the future described in science fiction. Whether its flying cars, the OS from Minority Report, or robots that play "rock, paper, scissors," the old saw is true: you can't fight progress. And now it looks like Yahoo Japan has jumped into the fray, with a little help from Comel, a Japanese company that manufactures billboards. The two firms are collaborating on electronic signage that photographs passersby, analyses it using NEC's facial analysis technology, and guesstimates his or her age. Once the demo is confirmed, the device spits out appropriate advertising content. According to the poorly translated press release, the "face image data" is then erased, saving only a record of the passerby's age and sex -- so you Civil Libertarians can rest easily. Right.[Via Trading Markets]
Yahoo! Japan launches portal for web browsing HDTVs
Not satisfied with a closed widget system, where the Digital Television Information Study Group has developed a web browser that's in the televisions of many manufacturers including Sony, Sharp and the Toshiba's announced earlier today. Yahoo! Japan has developed a version of its portal specifically aimed at net-enabled TVs, with a "10-foot" interface built for browsing by remote. Anyone else wondering why this isn't a standard feature over here yet?
