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Researchers to help Yahoo! users overcome Internet information overload

Posted: September 19, 2011

Two Arizona State University computer scientists will work with the leading online media company Yahoo! to make its interactive Internet news and reader-commentary services more user-friendly.

Huan Liu and Xia “Ben” Hu will collaborate with Yahoo! Labs on a web science research project through the company’s Faculty Research and Engagement Program. Liu is a professor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decisions Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Hu is pursuing a doctoral degree through the engineering schools’ computer science program.

ASU computer science professor Huan Liu and computer science doctoral student Xia "Ben" Hu are working with Yahoo! to make its interactive Internet news and reader-commentary services more user-friendly.

ASU computer science professor Huan Liu and computer science doctoral student Xia “Ben” Hu are working with Yahoo! to make its interactive Internet news and reader-commentary services more user-friendly.

The project with Yahoo! will also lead to future internship opportunities with the company for ASU computer science and engineering students, Liu says.

Liu and Hu will focus on finding ways to help Yahoo! news readers navigate the system’s large volume of news content and reader commentary in a more organized and coherent fashion. An increasingly large number of Yahoo! readers are posting comments about news articles and sharing them with their online social circles.

That’s creating multiple threads of commentary, making it difficult for readers to follow conversations as reader responses veer further off course from the context of the original news article, Hu explains.

The company wants Liu and Hu to provide readers a solution for making sense of it all in the midst of the flash floods of dialog posted in reaction to news stories.

The Yahoo! web portal is one of the most trafficked Internet destinations, drawing hundreds of millions of users monthly to content that includes news, entertainment and sports information, as well as access to messaging services.

Joe Kullman, [email protected]
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

About The Author

Joe Kullman

Joe Kullman is a science writer for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Before joining Arizona State University in 2006, Joe worked as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers and magazines dating back to the dawn of the age of the personal computer. He began his career while earning degrees in journalism and philosophy from Kent State University in Ohio. Media Contact: [email protected] | 480-965-8122 | Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Communications

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