Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang

Yahoo on Tuesday announced that co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned from Yahoo’s board of directors and all his other positions with the company. The resignation is effective today.

Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo back in 1995 along with David Filo. Since then, Yang has been very active with the company, serving for a short time as CEO and otherwise maintaining a spot on the board of directors and the cheeky title of “Chief Yahoo.”

It’s been a tumultuous time in Yahoo’s top ranks in recent months: In September, Carol Bartz was abruptly ousted from the CEO spot, and Yahoo was without a chief executive for nearly four months as M&A rumors swirled around the company. Former eBay executive Scott Thompson took the company’s helm in early January, but many industry watchers say he has a tough road ahead to get Yahoo back on track as competition in the tech and new media spaces is tougher than ever.

For some, Yang’s departure may come as a bit of a surprise, as his loyalty to Yahoo has seemed unwavering throughout all the drama — just a few months ago, he was even rumored to be in talks to lead a deal to take the company private. But this also means that now Yahoo can be fully prepared to make a clean start as it works to reestablish itself as an industry leader. Either way, it’s official: Jerry Yang is now on the list of tech founders who have left the companies they helped start.

According to Yahoo’s press release, Yang’s resignation letter to Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock reads:

“My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”

Photo courtesy of Flickr user YodelAnecdotal

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• NewNet 2012: companies and technologies set to disrupt
• NewNet Q3: Facebook remakes headlines in social media
• The coming living room OS war

alt=''
border='0'
/>

GigaOM

Music video for Pixels will give you a magic mushroom
President Obama wants hybrid limo, Secret Service says no
Everything you need to know about iPhone OS 4.0
New LED lightbulb will last 17 years
Adventures with Lincoln

CFL bulbs are great, but the mercury they use can be harmful. LEDs don’t use mercury, but the technology is still pretty rough, and it’s tough to get something that resembles a normal lightbulb from them. There’s been a couple of examples of how LED light can be used as a replacement for normal lighting, but nothing that’s really practical.

GE just announced a new lightbulb that’s going to change all that. The new technology combines the omnidirectional light of a incandescent bulb, and the power savings of and LED. The new bulb is expected to last 17 years before it needs replaced, which is about 25 times longer then a 40w incandescent. There’s a down side to the new bulb though, it’s going to cost between $40 to $50. The new bulb produces 450 lumens, which is the equivalent of a 40w incandescent, or 10w CFL, but the LED will only consume 9w of power. Expect to see the new LED bulb sometime in 2011.

[via inhabit]

Yup, perpetuating the idea that Doom = violent video games

What do I know about Australia? Not much—I know Jim Jeffries is from there. In recent years, Australia to me has always been associated with weird censorship and video games being banned left and right. Those days may soon be behind us, as Australia seems to be inching closer toward an R18+ rating for video games. That would mean that, instead of outright banning violent games, they could only be sold to adults. Pretty shocking that it has taken until 2010 for that to be the case, but what are you gonna do?

So the deal is that, thanks to the resignation of a well-known stick-in-the-mud attorney general down there, Australia could be on its way to finally introducing the much-needed R18+ video game rating. It’d be analogous to the ESRB’s M rating in that games carrying said rating can only be sold to people 17 and older. (Kids younger than 17 know to get their older brother, or the friend’s older brother, or their parents for that matter to buy said games for them.)

Society has deemed that you need to be 17 years old to play Grand Theft Auto and God of War just like you have to be 18 to buy cigarettes and 21 to buy alcohol. Granted, at 18 you can sign up for the military, but you’re not allowed to walk into a 7 Eleven and buy a can of beer. But that’s a hack argument for some local talk radio show.

Anyhow, in Australia the age is 18. Well, would be 18, provided all the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted.

Someday soon our Australian brothers will be able to walk into Big Store and walk out with an uncensored copy of Left 4 Dead II. That’s the dream, at least.