Yahoo Snaps Up NLP Startup SkyPhrase
December 13, 2013
There is more NLP excitement at Yahoo, we learn from TechCrunch‘s piece, “Yahoo Acquires Natural Language Processing Company SkyPhrase to Help Drive Intent Identification.” Writer Darrell Etherington reports that SkyPhrase will be integrated into Yahoo’s office in New York.
The article observes:
“Back in October, we covered SkyPhrase, and noted specifically that its NLP tech could be used to advance fantasy sports, which is of course an area where Yahoo excels and has a considerable investment already. The company has created an app that makes it easy for fantasy football players to search through stats and find only those relevant to making picks and monitoring their team, which would be very handy integrated directly into Yahoo’s fantasy sports products.
“[…] In October, the entrepreneur and cognitive scientist said that what he really hoped to accomplish with the company was to make NLP tech useful to as much of the world as possible via tailoring it to specific verticals in a way that’s easy for everyday users to access, and to make it easier for third-party partners to build NLP-powered interfaces for their own products, data and services.”
Sounds great! Unfortunately, laments Etherington, Yahoo is more likely to task its new acquisition with improving Yahoo’s products than with spreading the wealth of their third-party-friendly NLP. He notes that Yahoo has been focusing on mobile functionality, and that SkyPhrase’s tech can help with that.
Launched in 2011, SkyPhrase has built its algorithms around research performed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by Cassimatis and some of his grad students. The startup received funding from investment firm Breakout Labs, which invests in breakthrough advances. Let us hope that Yahoo’s rulership does not dim SkyPhrase’s unique potential.
Cynthia Murrell, December 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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