The brains behind Yahoo Boss, a young engineer named Vik Singh, is leaving Yahoo to become an entrepreneur-in-residence at Sutter Hill Ventures. Earlier this year, Singh was named to Technology Review’s 35 Under 35 list at the age of 24. Singh is exactly the kind of talent Yahoo should be trying to hold onto, but that is hard to do now that it is ceding search to Microsoft.
Singh is more diplomatic. Contacted for comment he confirms, “I’ll be starting next week actually. I’m really pumped but I’m going to definitely miss Yahoo! It’s been such a great company to work at but I just got this really bad case of the entrepreneurial bug.”
Yahoo Boss, which was largely Singh’s idea, is one of Yahoo’s most successful projects among developers. It “>opens up the power of Yahoo’s search index and algorithms to other sites. Yahoo Boss is a set of APIs and Web services which let people build their own customized search engines. (We use it for our search engine here at TechCrunch). Since it launched a year and a half ago, upwards of one billion search queries a month are powered through the service.
Prior to Yahoo, Singh cut his teeth at Microsoft Research in the lab of computer scientist Jim Gray, who was tragically lost at sea two years ago.
Singh already has some ideas about what he wants to work on at Sutter Hill, but he is keeping them close to his vest at this point. He does offer this: “There’s a line my mentor Jim Gray used to say to me all the time: ‘We gotta party on the data!’ I know it’s vague, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Party on, dude.
We gotta party on the data?
WOW this just proves how Yahoo is going to the Armageddon. Not on 2012 but sooner. Why?
List of People who left Yahoo.
1st: Icahn (Founder of ICANN) 2nd: The Father of PHP 3rd: Senior Programmer (I forgot the name sorry) 4th: and now Vik singh?
and the best part of it all? the leaving of this yahoo institutes didn’t happen in 1 year not in 6 months… Guess what guys? in 1 “effin” month only!
So do you still have doubts if Carol Bartz (Y! CEO) is not a loser? Detailed review: http://bit.ly/bit.ly/carol-bartz-is-a-loser
Not even Superman can save yahoo…
Same rhetoric different date…
With all the “professional” prognosticators that post on this board, I am surprised that Yahoo is still alive????
But yet they are still around making cash quarter after quarter. Just like the all impressive, earth shattering, and all wonderful Twitter… oops never mind.
My “professional” prognostication for all you yahoos… Twitter will deadpool WAY before Yahoo.
>>3rd: Senior Programmer
Did you realize there would be few hundred people at yahoo who would have title “Senior Programmer “?
Guess he was referring to this dude?
(http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/11/its-all-about-the-data-twitter-nabs-senior-scientist-utkarsh-srivastava-from-yahoo/)
who was a senior research scientist @ Y! and the main guy behind the PIG language over Hadoop. Hadoop and pig rock! We’ve been using it for data analytics at our company successfully for a while now.
So it is Mike Speiser who enticed him into Sutter Hill Ventures? Congratulations Vik.
He didn’t really split the infinitive did he? Say it ain’t so!
Reign on the data is better.
is that ray romano twin brother? they look identical
he’s kind of like look like raymond from everybody loves raymond
We too lament his departure from Yahoo. He was a worthy adversary. Many in Technology Review’s 35 have gone on to start some of the worlds most successful companies. We fondly remember the review we received from TR predicting our own meteoric rise to power.
Not.
Vik is a tremendous talent and Sutter Hill is a world class firm with incredible people. Great match, it will be interesting to see what comes outta this.
Good luck Vik!
Congratulations! definitely separated at birth – him and ray romano
I guess it is bad time for Yahoo! Partying on data looks little bit scary, with so much privacy issues with these mega data stores. Hope Vik would be working on some good stuff (not just technically, but ethically too).
Big Congratulations to Vik on the new gig!
Yes to partying on the data!
Vik is one of the finest people I have ever worked with at Yahoo. It’s hard to see Rasmus and him leave this month.
Agree with u Ted, both were shining stars ! Yahoo is leaking talents…
He doesn’t look 24
Ya, he does look a little older. More power to him!
Congrats Raymond. I guess everybody loves you.
What the hell is yahoo boss? Has anyone even used it? Maybe he left because yahoo junked his little project that no one used.
what credental does he have to be on TR35. Looks like awarding nobel peace prize to BHO.
@Anonymous @bo = jealous pricks who have no idea what theyre talking about. I can speak personally & say many search companies even college classes use BOSS. BOSS opens delicious and semantic data which is big & is unrestricted, so companies dont need to publicize that they use boss which is also great.
Seriously, there’s no end to the idiocy in these comments. These are people who are completely clueless about the broader world of tech, just saw “Yahoo” in the title, and started frothing at the mouth. Probably helpless Google/Apple fanboys, too. Get a life, y’all.
Does anybody know if Yahoo is going to keep BOSS running with the MSN transition?
Not clear this merits an article on TC. Boss was a modest improvement on Yahoo Search API and never had serious adoption. Sutter Hill, while a reputable firm, isn’t typically considered top-tier.
he was awesome.. seriously does yahoo have any talent left?
Vik is one of the most talented and intelligent people I have ever had the opportunity to work with. Congrats Vik on the new gig. Sutter Hill is lucky to have him!
I was lucky to work with Vik at Yahoo! before leaving in Feb 2008. He is incredibly smart and very creative. Sutter Hill (Mr. Speiser) is very clever to bring him to Sutter Hill.
Nice work and congrats, Vik.
One correction, Erick. BOSS was entirely Vik’s idea. Once he shared it with the right people, they jumped on board.
Vik is a genius Yahoo is gonna missed him.
The web data hasn’t been party-ed upon and massaged enough. Congrats on the move, Vik.
Excellent vick…..
Thank you Vik Singh.. I came to know about Yahoo BOSS only after your resignation..
Now I would able to use Yahoo’s search Index without having to worry about daily limits..
he’s kind of like look like raymond from everybody loves raymond…. yeh he does..doesnt he…
Sarah
http://www.isopurewater.com/
exactly, what the hell is/was Boss…
Congrats Vik and All the best !