Yahoo acquires GoPollGo
thenextweb.comThe announcement at http://gopollgo.com/ hits all the acquisition bingo spots:
* "We are excited"
* "It has been so rewarding
* "We're so excited"
* "we couldn’t be happier"
* "thanks to all our users,"
* "As of today, we'll no longer be supporting [GoPollGo]"
The founder of GoPollGo actually responded to this comment but nobody can see him because he's hellbanned.
...due to spamming GoPollGo polls on HN. Virtually no other contributions otherwise.
https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=LeBen
Too funny.
That's not Ben's username...you're completely wrong here.
Am I now?
In response to you:
>BenSchaechter 1 hour ago | link [dead]
>Hey, I'm the real Ben. You can check my history, etc. I did post a fair amount of GPG posts to HN, though =)
Submissions from him:
https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=BenSchaechter
[dead] Poll: Do you think there is a technology bubble? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 359 days ago | flag | discuss 2.
[dead] Scoble Asks: What will Facebook's stock price do after it goes public? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 362 days ago | flag | discuss 3.
[dead] Poll: Are you planning on buying Facebook stock? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 366 days ago | flag | discuss 4.
[dead] Facebook “Likes” Just Got “Cray Cray” (techcrunch.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 370 days ago | flag | discuss 5.
[dead] CrayBook (github.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 370 days ago | flag | discuss 6.
[dead] Poll: How Do You Deal with Vendor Prefixes? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 437 days ago | flag | discuss 7.
[dead] Poll: LESS or SASS? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by BenSchaechter 489 days ago | flag | discuss
Submissions also from him on an alt account:
https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=LeBen
1 point by LeBen 126 days ago | flag | discuss 2.[dead] Show HN: We just launched the GoPollGo iPhone app. What do you think? (gopollgo.com)[dead] Poll: What method did you use to vote, or how do you plan to vote? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 184 days ago | flag | discuss 3.
[dead] [Poll HN] Who do you think won the VP Debate? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 209 days ago | flag | discuss 4.
[dead] Real-Time Poll: Who's winning the debates? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 218 days ago | flag | discuss 5.
[dead] TechCrunch Poll: Which is your favorite S12 Demo Day Company? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 261 days ago | flag | discuss 6.
[dead] TechCrunch Poll: Would you ride in one of Google's self-driving cars? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 275 days ago | flag | discuss 7.
[dead] [Poll HN] Who is at fault: Craigslist or Padmapper? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 289 days ago | flag | discuss 8.
[dead] TechCrunch Poll: Do you think Marissa Mayer will be able to turn Yahoo around? (gopollgo.com) 1 point by LeBen 297 days ago | flag | discuss
.
Notice all that [dead]? That means he was hellbanned on his main and his spam account. Deservedly.
Just recently I read pg's old essay on Microsoft. (http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html)
> The surprising fact is, brilliant hackers—dangerously brilliant hackers—can be had very cheaply, by the standards of a company as rich as Microsoft. They can't hire smart people anymore, but they could buy as many as they wanted for only an order of magnitude more.
This seems like Marissa Mayer's strategy.
"They[Microsoft] can't hire smart people anymore" is easily the most fatuous thing he's written.
But what happens to these hackers when they arrive to a company that has Yahoo's culture? That's their problem. Their culture is the same one as any shitty American company.
She's trying to make a new culture by buying up A players as aqui-hires.
Question is, will it work long term or is it a shortsighted gimmicky strategy?
The essay addressed this:
> Put them all in a building in Silicon Valley, surrounded by lead shielding to protect them from any contact with Redmond.
Assuming Yahoo should do the same. :)
Does Yahoo! have a track record of doing this?
the mobile team is on one floor in one building at the sunnyvale campus
Title correction: Yahoo acqui-hires GoPollGo. Like Summly, the service itself will disappear completely.
Well, in a way. Yahoo products with Summly integration are in the app store right now.
I would be excited to go work for yahoo at this moment in their history. They're making some relatively big moves to get their game back.
It seems like Yahoo is following through their "focus on mobile"[1]. However, what other (recent) big moves have they made?
(As an aside, their weather app for the iPhone is very well done.)
[1] http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/16/yahoo-mobile-earnings/
How to hire smart people for your multinational corporation and get free PR in the process: - comb through startups with talented founders - "acquire" their "company" - Make techcrunch headlines - 2 to 4 year committed employees, team oftentimes included - ??? - Profit
The acquired companies rarely survive and the technology or systems they developed are usually gutted and stripped and the founders generally flee for the exits as soon as they can.
The announcement is posted at http://gopollgo.com/
Congratulations on the acquisition, OP.
Yahoo is really upping the mobile aqui-hires. I wonder if people are excited to actually go work at Yahoo or if they're just happy to be acquired.
Congratulations, Sam!