

Yahoo acquires GoPollGo - samgro
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/05/09/yahoo-mobile-acquires-gopollgo-polling-service-shuts-down-all-widgets-polls-and-properties/

======
cfinke
The 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]"

~~~
coolsunglasses
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.

~~~
dglassan
That's not Ben's username...you're completely wrong here.

~~~
coolsunglasses
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>

    
    
    	 [dead] Show HN: We just launched the GoPollGo iPhone app. What do you think? (gopollgo.com)

1 point by LeBen 126 days ago | flag | discuss 2.

[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.

------
nostromo
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.

~~~
orangethirty
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.

~~~
nostromo
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. :)

~~~
orangethirty
Does Yahoo! have a track record of doing this?

~~~
shawndumas
the mobile team is on one floor in one building at the sunnyvale campus

------
kylec
Title correction: Yahoo acqui-hires GoPollGo. Like Summly, the service itself
will disappear completely.

~~~
andreer
Well, in a way. Yahoo products with Summly integration are in the app store
right now.

------
pvnick
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.

~~~
127001brewer
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/>

------
hayksaakian
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

~~~
wahsd
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.

------
oinksoft
The announcement is posted at <http://gopollgo.com/>

Congratulations on the acquisition, OP.

------
rjjacobson
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.

------
caryme
Congratulations, Sam!

