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By David Shabelman, March 1, 2006

Q&A Prabhakar Raghavan is modest for a man changing the world.

As head of technology research at Yahoo, the 45-year-old is a key figure in leading the development of the Internet, arguably the most important technology of our time. Products emerging from his laboratories are used by hundreds of millions of Internet users across the globe, including countless consumers and businesses.

More broadly, these innovations--Internet search, e-commerce, online entertainment, content-sharing and instant messaging, to name but a few--affect everything from how people relate and connect to one another, to how information is distributed and consumed, to how goods and services are bought and sold.

Which is why it's wise to take Raghavan at his word when he says Yahoo's goal, however far-fetched and paradoxical, given the company's technological legacy, is to let Internet users retrieve precisely the information they're seeking on the Web without having to search for it.

"We have this huge mountain of data, and it raises fascinating questions about how we can use that to better the experience for our users," he says. "How do you create a sentient network of properties that seems to give the user exactly what they're looking for at every point, and not just with a search emphasis?"

Here is the rest of the story.