AOL doesn’t have a chief product officer, but if it did, that person would be Brad Garlinghouse, the president of Applications and Commerce who heads up AOL’s Silicon Valley office. As has been widely reported, Garlinghouse has decided to leave AOL. This is not good news.
Garlinghouse oversees many of the best product teams at AOL, including those filled with folks from some of the startups AOL has acquired in recent years. (TechCrunch was also acquired by AOL, but we are not part of Garlinghouse’s organization). AOL still has a collection of products that are not media properties, including AIM, Mail, and newer mobile apps. But it’s not clear exactly how they fit in what is increasingly becoming a pure online media company.
Just look at the new AIM preview that came out Wednesday. It’s a lovely product, but it includes a strange news feed that features only Huffington Post Media channels (including TechCrunch, I should add). It kind of makes you feel like AIM is being used to push more pageviews instead of to solve a communication problem.
As Om Malik writes, “the company is focusing more of its resources on “media” … and less on applications.” It is not the direction Garlinghouse would take the company. And, in truth, media is becoming more app-like. Editors and engineers will need to figure out how to work together to create the most compelling media experiences.
"When sales guys run the company, product guys don’t matter so much, and a lot of them just turn off."
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson—
Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) November 08, 2011
Brad Garlinghouse joined YouSendIt in May 2012, and manages the company’s core operations, business growth strategy and key partnerships. Brad believes that a truly successful company begins with its employees and the culture they build together as a team. Brad is focused on creating a winning culture at YouSendIt by constantly challenging the way people think and how they approach their day-to-day roles at the company. Prior to coming to YouSendIt, Brad was President of Consumer Applications and head of AOL’s...
AOL is a global advertising-supported Web company, with display advertising network in the U.S., a substantial worldwide audience, and a suite of popular Web brands and products. The company’s strategy focuses on increasing the scale and sophistication of its advertising platform and growing the size and engagement of its global online audience through leading products and programming. On March 13, 2008, AOL Internet division announced their plans to buy social network Bebo for $850 million in cash. History of Aol: AOL was...
Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Ads
San Francisco, CA
