Why big companies like AOL are so painfully sluggish | Hacker News Reader

Why big companies like AOL are so painfully sluggish

valleywag.com

11 pointsprakster10 comments

Was from Valleywag...may be they redacted it.. but here's the text and the instructions on how to get the the PowerPoint:

3/26/2007 1:07:09 PM "Ever wonder precisely why big companies such as AOL are so painfully sluggish? Here's an insight. AOL recently launched an enhanced search service which, alongside search results from Google, showed capsule reviews, videos and other content from AOL itself. Straightforward enough. Splice in the different databases, slap a name on the product, pray. Not for AOL. The company engaged a top-tier naming agency, evaluated 120 different options, tested the finalists with focus groups in Denver and Chicago, checked on the meaning in 16 languages -- and the brand strategy group explained its process in a laughably belabored 20-slide presentation. After all that preparation, they forgot to remove the Powerpoint file from the website. Read on, for the screenshots, and a window into the corporate hive mind."

To get the full AOL Powerpoint, paste this in Google: fullview site:aol.com filetype:ppt

And it's not even a good name! We could come up with something better than that in 5 minutes. Ouch.

I work for IBM, from my perspective it looks like AOL works at LIGHTSPEED! We can't keep up with those new Internet companies ;)

Yeah, if I have learned anything from watching various startups and the like is that bureaucracy kills you, better to give a small team of developers with concise goals some money and have someone keep them on track. If they need more people then let them explain why, and how they are going to use them.

I downloaded the actual PowerPoint just to check the "notes" section..here's one beauty: "...A very strong name - since we probably don't have any PhDs in Linguistics in the audience today, I'll give you a few nuggets from them about FullView - Interestingly, Full and View are both very recognized English words in many language worldwide. They are easy to pronounce and clearly understood. Some interesting facts about Full, in particular, are that the word has positive connotations - in Quebec French, for instance, can translate to "totally"; in Turkish, esp amongst poker players - means good luck. And even in Chinese, Full correlates to Fu which means Rich".

here's the powerpoint: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19386/Search-Naming-aol-powerpoint

here's the powerpoint:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19386/Search-Naming-aol-powerpoint

the URL is: http://valleywag.com/tech/aol/powerpoint-paralysis-247173.php

And they ended up with FullView? ...Nice one.

not working.

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