Yahoo Labs Head Leaving for Google, Research to Get the Axe at Yahoo

Yahoo may finally be getting a revamp, after many years of "soul searching" with few tangible results. New CEO Scott Thomson isn't wasting any time and has started shaping Yahoo to his liking.

Unfortunately, the resulting Yahoo may not be one most people are going to like, but it may at least be a functioning company.

The first sign of trouble, or of a recovery depending on what view you take, was Yahoo's looming patent war with Facebook.

Considering that Facebook has been the source of the few good news Yahoo has had to offer in the past few years, it's a strange target, but if cash over anything else is what you're looking for, Facebook seems like the best target at the moment.

Now it looks like Yahoo is looking to kill off any remnants of innovation left at the company with the rumored decimation of Yahoo Labs, where all long-term research at Yahoo happens.

That isn't happening yet, but a good sign that it's coming is Prabhakar Raghavan's departure. He has been the head of Yahoo Labs and more recently the head of strategy at Yahoo.

Granted there hasn't been much "strategy" at Yahoo for years now, but that's probably very little his fault, there were bigger players taking care of that unfortunately.

He has been with the company for seven years but is now leaving for a new role at Google.

"Yahoo! thanks Prabhakar Raghavan for his dedication and contributions to Yahoo! for the past 7 years. We wish him well in his next endeavor. Ash Munshi, CTO, will assume leadership for Y! Labs," Yahoo confirmed the departure.

Yahoo hasn't been known for innovation in the past years, but it seems that what little innovation there was is going out the window as the company will start focusing squarely at the bottom line.