Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

dealbook.nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 366 posts

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#241

Post by sabat »

jbyers wrote: post #2

Wow. I am speechless. There is probably no better person on earth to light a user- and product-focused fire under Yahoo. But the risk, the risk for her is just stunning. Huge props to her for making the leap from what must be a very comfortable Google and for the board for finding a stunning candidate to lead the revival of Yahoo. (Edit: my definition of risk is lost time and missed opportunity. She's not going to su…

As someone who has been underwhelmed by Ms. Mayer since her early days at Google, I think this is just another desperate attempt to save the ailing Yahoo. It will fail, and she'll be out in less than a year.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#243

Post by dillona »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #132
uptown wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if she had stayed at Google, what would be the next step for her career-wise? She went from vice president of search products to overseeing location and local services. Now she's CEO. You don't think that'll motivate her?

I think it not surprising that she left Google to be a CEO somewhere, it was just surprising that she picked Yahoo. Another one of those VP -> CEO jumps that was interesting to watch was Ed Zander (Sun Micro -> Motorola). What I was expecting was that she would leave and start some sort cross between 'solve a world issue' with 'easy accessibility' kinds of UI. At Google her strength was having a clear idea of how to…

That's always been my problem with Yahoo.

They are a company filled with brilliant engineers (who give us things like Hadoop), yet they only want to be a media company.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#245

Post by CamperBob2 »

nostrademons wrote: post #169
JPKab wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is typical Yahoo bullshit. They hire a CEO not for the primary reason of effectiveness or experience, but instead for their perception of effectiveness in the media. Is she an improvement over Bartz? No doubt, because the first time I saw Bartz discussing Yahoo's future several years ago, it was immediately clear to me that they weren't getting out of their tailspin. Is Mayer a genius? I'm sure of it. But from a…

Eh, I like Marissa, and I've worked on projects (the 2010 websearch visual redesign, and doodles) for which she was the executive sponsor. No, she's not a nice person, and most likely she does not give a shit about you as a person. But she is very often right about her design opinions, and when she's not, she'll listen to data. I don't think Yahoo particularly needs a nice person as CEO right now. Their culture is dy…

Most observers seem to agree that Yahoo's problem is cultural in nature. It's not a Nokia-esque situation, where the company was heavily damaged by competitive forces before Elop even showed up.

A big part -- a necessary part -- of the way Jobs changed the culture at Apple was by bringing in a lot of people who had been loyal to him for years at Next and elsewhere. I can't think of any cases where an outsider has parachuted into a large company, by invitation or otherwise, and turned it around by himself/herself.

Can/will Mayer do that? If so, where will the required team of revolutionaries and revanchists come from? If she doesn't (or can't) raid Google, then where will she get the people she will need?

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#246

Post by SatvikBeri »

rhizome wrote: post #117
ry0ohki wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The risk of her reputation. Once you have money, reputation is of the things that keeps you going every day. Right now her reputation is golden.

You overestimate the downside of a reputation hit. The business world loves failures, and in fact it promotes them as people experienced with problems.

Look at the previous CEOs of Yahoo. Even excluding Scott Thompson (who lied on his resume) NONE of them have even held executive positions, or done anything significant in the business world. It doesn't seem like people forgave them just because Yahoo is a horrible mess.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#247

Post by dbecker »

wavephorm wrote: post #211
VikingCoder wrote: post #147

Marissa Mayer (2012-Present) Ross Levinsohn (Interim) (2012) Scott Thompson (2012) Tim Morse (Interim) (2011-2012) Carol Bartz (2009-2011) Jerry Yang (2007-2009) Terry Semel (2001-2007) Timothy Koogle (1995-2001) I seriously hope that the Board of Directors has some idea of what they're doing, because their track record certainly doesn't look like it. EDIT: To be clear, this wasn't meant as a slam on Marissa. What I…

I am very curious what goes in those Board of Directors meetings. Does everyone just sit around asking eachother "What the fuck does this company do, and how are we still in business?" Seriously, what does Yahoo do? I don't know, because I haven't been their website since the 1990's. They obviously don't make software or hardware products, because I don't own any and have never paid for any of their products. I have…

I hear people say good things about Hadoop... though the stigma of it's development at Yahoo has always kept me from investing the time to learn more.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#248

Post by goatforce5 »

VikingCoder wrote: post #147

Marissa Mayer (2012-Present) Ross Levinsohn (Interim) (2012) Scott Thompson (2012) Tim Morse (Interim) (2011-2012) Carol Bartz (2009-2011) Jerry Yang (2007-2009) Terry Semel (2001-2007) Timothy Koogle (1995-2001) I seriously hope that the Board of Directors has some idea of what they're doing, because their track record certainly doesn't look like it. EDIT: To be clear, this wasn't meant as a slam on Marissa. What I…

Philip Monego spent six months there before Koogle.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/philip-monego-sr/0/11b/967?_mSpl...

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#249

Post by anmol »

sabat wrote: post #241
jbyers wrote: post #2

Wow. I am speechless. There is probably no better person on earth to light a user- and product-focused fire under Yahoo. But the risk, the risk for her is just stunning. Huge props to her for making the leap from what must be a very comfortable Google and for the board for finding a stunning candidate to lead the revival of Yahoo. (Edit: my definition of risk is lost time and missed opportunity. She's not going to su…

As someone who has been underwhelmed by Ms. Mayer since her early days at Google, I think this is just another desperate attempt to save the ailing Yahoo. It will fail, and she'll be out in less than a year.

curious to learn why you say this?

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#250

Post by dspeyer »

reneherse wrote: post #235
Tobu wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their products are usable and uncluttered. I have reservations about the new unified look (too much padding in horizontal stripes one can't scroll, trying to displace browser chrome), but I've been very happy with the previous, “designed by engineers” Google aesthetic.

There are so many UX problems with the current crop of Google core products, it's hard for me to agree that "usable and uncluttered" can refer to anything but the Google of the past.

Google of the past was built on A/B. The new UIs are designed by a small, closed-eared team of graphic artists.
Post reply on HN