Erik W. Selberg, Ph. D.


4815 36th Ave. NE
Seattle, WA. 98105
h: (206) 517-3039 c: (206) 915-1472
erik@selberg.org
http://www.selberg.org





Short Biography

Dr. Selberg is one of the founding members of Microsoft Search Labs. Search Labs is a research and development group within the Windows Live Search team. Its mission is to invent, build, and deploy differentiated products and services for Windows Live, leading to new business opportunities and thought leadership for Microsoft in the Internet space. He has a proven track record in developing and operating large-scale Internet search systems, integrated Internet applications, and hosted services. He created the MetaCrawler search service, now part of InfoSpace and still one of the top meta-search services available. He is currently working at Microsoft Corporation, leading a team responsible for the algorithmic relevance of MSN Search and Live Search. Dr. Selberg is well published and holds two patents. He is focused on the business of technology, creating profitable technology products and services that have a profound impact on a large number of people.



Professional Experience

Senior Software Development Engineer, Search Labs
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA June 2006 - present

As a senior software development engineer, I am one of the founding members of Microsoft Search Labs, Search Labs is a research and development group within the Windows Live Search team. Its mission is to invent, build, and deploy differentiated products and services for Windows Live, leading to new business opportunities and thought leadership for Microsoft in the Internet space.

The project I am working on has not been publicly disclosed, and thus I am unable to comment on it at this time.

Senior Program Manager, Web Search Algorithmic Relevance
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA Feb. 2003 - June 2006

As the program manager for Web Search Algorithmic Relevance, part of the Windows Live Search (formerly MSN Search) group at Microsoft, I drove a cross-group team of developers, testers, and researchers to create the best world-wide algorithmic search engine. My primary focus was core relevance of Web search results. Key to this endeavor was leveraging Microsoft's strong researcher community, not just in MSR - Redmond but also MSR-SVC in Mountain View, MSRC in Cambridge, UK, and MSRA in Beijing, China. The collaboration I drove has been extremely successful - code and algorithms have been integrated from every lab into MSN Search. This helped turn the Search group into a model of how to effectively partner with MSR throughout Microsoft. The MSN Search Engine was built from the ground up and has continued to improve to the point where it is very close in relevance to both Yahoo! and Google, both of whom have had several years head start on their projects.

Development Manager, Content Discovery Systems
RealNetworks, Inc. Seattle, WA Aug. 2001 - Feb. 2003

As the Development Manager for the Content Discovery Systems Group of RealNetworks, I oversaw the development, maintenance, and operations of nearly a dozen system platforms for the Real Subscription Platform. One of my primary responsibilities was ensuring the proper development and operation of the Real Media Authorization Services, mission-critical components of the Real service that ensured subscribers were able to access content they were entitled to and that non-subscribers were denied and presented with the appropriate upsell or error message. I also managed the Real Content Management Services, which included the Real Search Service. These services enabled various vendors and internal editors to provide content for the various Real subscriptions as well as enabled various front-end teams in the company, including external localization groups, to provide customers with the ability to discover and play various pieces of content. Two of the primary systems under my direct supervision were the Radio Service, which powered the various Radio offerings of Real, and the Album Information Service, which is automatically used by every user of the RealPlayer to provide information to that user about the media they are playing, such as album, artist, and track information. These two services are the most commonly used services of people using the RealPlayer.

Startup Consultant
Various Engagements 1996, 1999, 2000

As a startup consultant, I aided various startup companies with early stage business and technical development. I helped draft and edit business plans and patent applications. I aided the development of initial prototypes and demos. I was also instrumental in facilitating initial and secondary meetings with local VCs and angel funds, such as Madrona Venture Capital and Arch Venture Partners.

My first engagement was with Netbot Inc., a Seattle-based startup, that licensed MetaCrawler from my research group at the University of Washington. Over the summer of 1996, I worked with Netbot to transfer the MetaCrawler technology and initiate the groundwork for Netbot to host a commercial MetaCrawler service, which would be able to handle upwards of 10 million queries per day at launch. In addition, I was responsible for initial negotiations with the Web search services for commercial use of MetaCrawler with their services, and was heavily involved with the conception of the business plan for the commercial MetaCrawler service.

Shortly after I completed my work at Netbot, it was acquired by Excite Inc. for $35 million dollars for its Jango software product, a comparison shopping agent that used the MetaCrawler engine. Excite was later acquired by Home, Inc. in spring of 1999 for $7 billion dollars.

Directory of Technology
FizzyLab, Inc. Seattle, WA July, 2000 - Jan., 2001

FizzyLab was a contextual advertising and search company. Its primary product, Content Relevator, provided a "More articles like this" for several online media providers, such as BusinessWeek and People, and its secondary product, Commerce Relevator, provided relevant advertising links. Among other initial customers were Time Magazine. FizzyLab ran on a Java / Solaris / Oracle platform.

As the Director of Technology for FizzyLab, I led a team of 20 people responsible for the design, implementation, and maintenance of the four primary FizzyLab services and various infrastructure components. I was also responsible for both strategic planning as well as tactical implementation of the technology group for the company. I was involved with forming company strategy as it pertains to both existing and developing technologies, assessing the technical challenges of various market opportunities, evaluating third party technology, and evaluating business opportunities that arise from FizzyLab's Advanced Technology Group. With the other company Directors, I created a company-wide tactical road maps on a quarterly basis. I then executed against the company road map, ensuring that initiatives were properly scoped and staffed, teams were engaged, and engineering work was properly scheduled. My managerial responsibilities included creating project and technology teams, giving direction to team leads and members, hiring and firing, setting individual goals, and developing and executing development processes.

Director of Search
Go2Net, Inc., Seattle, WA June, 1999 - June, 2000

Go2Net was a diversified Internet company with products in four main areas: Web search, small business hosting, financial message boards, and online games, with emerging initiatives in broadband properties. The Search group was responsible for the development, maintenance, and operations of MetaCrawler, DogPile, and 100hot. In July of 2000, both MetaCrawler and DogPile were each handling over 2 million queries per day on about 20 lower-end Linux boxes.

As the Director of Search for Go2Net, I lead a team that managed the daily operation and enhancement of MetaCrawler, DogPile, and 100hot, which were responsible for generating several million dollars of revenue per quarter. I helped form the product strategies, created the schedule, and assessed third-party technologies for acquisition or partnerships. On the technology side, I created and implemented the development, build, and release processes, developed the high level architectures of the system, scheduled resources, and oversaw the hiring of the engineering team.

Research Assistant
University of Washington, Seattle, WA September, 1993 - June, 1999

While attaining my doctorate degree at the UW, I created the MetaCrawler parallel search engine with my advisor, Prof. Oren Etzioni. I wrote all the code and handled all the administration of MetaCrawler for over a year. I was responsible for ensuring MetaCrawler remained fast and responsive as the number of users grew, given limited hardware resources - four DEC Alphas. I developed many software optimizations and automated server administration tools towards this effort. Before MetaCrawler was licensed in 1996, it was handling almost 100,000 queries per day with room to grow, which was roughly 3-5 times as many as its closest competitor, SavvySearch.



Education

Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering June, 1999
University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

M.S., Computer Science and Engineering June, 1995
University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

B.S., Mathematics / Computer Science and Logic & Computation May, 1993
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.



Full Vitae

A more comprehensive vitae can be found online at:

(HTML) http://www.selberg.org/homes/speed/papers/jobs/vitae/vitae.html
(PDF) http://www.selberg.org/homes/speed/papers/jobs/vitae.pdf



Erik W. Selberg 2007-01-30