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Microsoft has named a former researcher from rival Yahoo to lead a new unit that taps into the software giant's research and product development arms.

"Live Labs," as the effort is called, will be a coupling of workers from Microsoft Research and MSN, and will be headed by Gary Flake, a top researcher hired away by Microsoft from Yahoo last year.

Some of the members of the unit will retain their day jobs in other parts of Microsoft, while others will be assigned full-time to the new project. The research unit is adding 30 positions for the Live Labs effort, while MSN is creating more than 70 new positions.

In an interview, Flake said that Live Labs is, in part, a recognition that the traditional modes of doing research and creating products take too long in the Internet world.

"Historically, the software industry has been an industry in which it was fine to have months or years in between product cycles," Flake said. "That is something that has been part of Microsoft's processes as well."
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Read More / Source: ZDNet