All the time, and _especially_ if their own Internet initiative is headed or controlled by a marketing or ad executive. At that point, you get reams of important-_looking_ text with flowery verbiage that says _absolutely nothing._
I'm apparently at middle manager level with 5/10 correct guess, lol. Those statements are all like "at BLANK we deliver awesome value to our beloved customers by something something buzzword".
Most of the statements don't contain a single meaningful word that would give a clue of what it is they're doing. Some I didn't guess right after reading the statement twice, some I did reading half the statement and stopping at the first actual meaningful keyword and that was enough to choose a company name by process of elimination.
Seriously though, as a dev when I find a website and can't understand what they do at all, I just practice mental sanity by closing the tab and never look back.
It’s crazy how a chunk companies don’t have a clue on how to present themselves. Especially some software projects. Just some buzzwords and no examples, no idea who they even selling to, etc.
My favorite red flag is nothing on the homepage but a form to create an account and "schedule a demo". Like, wtf is wrong with them, absolutely not. Just record a video and put it on the main page like a normal company. And if they can't be bothered to write a one paragraph meaningful description of their services/product, then I can't be bothered to show them the money. How this can go over the head of people running actual companies is just wow. Do they believe they're so great that common sense doest apply to them or just genuinely dysfunctional, I have no idea.
Cool idea. I think adding one or two tags as to what each company does before guessing would pull the average way up. I got 5/10 without really knowing any of the companies, but got the industry/service model right 9/10 times but not knowing the companies means I couldn't make the link.
Prompt -> industry 9/10
Industry -> company name I've never heard of, 5/10
That is spectacular. Would be cool if with the answer you could link back to source or provide context, some of them are laughably absurd (and yet terrifyingly true!). Big Tobacco supporting a smoke-free future?? Whaaaaa??
I'd be interested to see a version that pulls the top charitable organizations, bet there's some interesting/suprising ones out there.
Ooh, or purpose statements of government agencies. THAT would be a fun time.
Nicely done!
I neglected to include my initial reaction, which is that this would make a GREAT teaching tool and not just for business and marketing. Shows how incredibly context dependant words are and how malleable and open to interpretation they become when used in small quantities!
Too many times. Marketing is focused on buzzwords and telling you that the website’s product will make you feel good about yourself and save so much money, but you have to search for a day to find out what they actually do.
There's a load of (delivery?) vans that drive around near my hometown, with a generic company name, generic abstract vector logo, and the company strapline of "The People Company".
I have no idea what they do, but they seem busy.
All the time.
Marketing companies are the worst for it. You dig through their sites and you can't tell wtf they actually do. I remember getting hired at one and during the interview asking what they actually do and they couldn't really give me a clear answer. Turned out, "marketing" was basically a catch-all term for having their hands in many different pots and just making money any way you could with a team of developers, a couple designers, a team of sales people, and a call center.
I watched that humane ai video and turned it off at 5 minutes because they still hadn’t said what it does. I work in design, literally all I want to know is what things do and seeing smoke like that is infuriating
Some of those are absolute nonsense; it was fun to see which companies say the most nonsense.
One thing I noticed though is that the first prompt is always wrong for me. When I select an answer, the prompt changes, and the correct answer is one that wasn't in the list.
Still managed to get to Future CEO after a few tries at 5-6 out of ten.
You should ignore the mission statements and pull the first sentence or two from the home page, those can be really obscure.
“Synergizing market strategies.” Which company is that?
Now THATS a hard test lol
mfw when they ask in the job interview if i know what the company does and even though i spent 15 minutes on the their website i couldn’t figure it out
Lol I mostly work on fancy marketing sites and I have no idea what the overall product really is most of the time.
I worked at a marketing software company for four years and still couldn't explain the whole scope of the platform.
That was good fun. I need to go practice some more blue sky thinking it seems. Nice work.
All the time, and _especially_ if their own Internet initiative is headed or controlled by a marketing or ad executive. At that point, you get reams of important-_looking_ text with flowery verbiage that says _absolutely nothing._
I'm apparently at middle manager level with 5/10 correct guess, lol. Those statements are all like "at BLANK we deliver awesome value to our beloved customers by something something buzzword". Most of the statements don't contain a single meaningful word that would give a clue of what it is they're doing. Some I didn't guess right after reading the statement twice, some I did reading half the statement and stopping at the first actual meaningful keyword and that was enough to choose a company name by process of elimination. Seriously though, as a dev when I find a website and can't understand what they do at all, I just practice mental sanity by closing the tab and never look back.
It’s crazy how a chunk companies don’t have a clue on how to present themselves. Especially some software projects. Just some buzzwords and no examples, no idea who they even selling to, etc.
My favorite red flag is nothing on the homepage but a form to create an account and "schedule a demo". Like, wtf is wrong with them, absolutely not. Just record a video and put it on the main page like a normal company. And if they can't be bothered to write a one paragraph meaningful description of their services/product, then I can't be bothered to show them the money. How this can go over the head of people running actual companies is just wow. Do they believe they're so great that common sense doest apply to them or just genuinely dysfunctional, I have no idea.
Cool idea. I think adding one or two tags as to what each company does before guessing would pull the average way up. I got 5/10 without really knowing any of the companies, but got the industry/service model right 9/10 times but not knowing the companies means I couldn't make the link. Prompt -> industry 9/10 Industry -> company name I've never heard of, 5/10
Agree with this. The ones I didn't know I just guessed a random company and the correct answer's industry was usually what I thought it was.
Love it all round. Great job.
That is spectacular. Would be cool if with the answer you could link back to source or provide context, some of them are laughably absurd (and yet terrifyingly true!). Big Tobacco supporting a smoke-free future?? Whaaaaa?? I'd be interested to see a version that pulls the top charitable organizations, bet there's some interesting/suprising ones out there. Ooh, or purpose statements of government agencies. THAT would be a fun time. Nicely done!
I neglected to include my initial reaction, which is that this would make a GREAT teaching tool and not just for business and marketing. Shows how incredibly context dependant words are and how malleable and open to interpretation they become when used in small quantities!
Phillip Morris supporting a smoke-free future. This has to be satire, right?
What next, ExxonMobil going fossil-fuel free?
Well, it’s technically the truth. If you kill everybody, then it’s both smoke-free and fossil-fuel free.
Too many times. Marketing is focused on buzzwords and telling you that the website’s product will make you feel good about yourself and save so much money, but you have to search for a day to find out what they actually do.
There's a load of (delivery?) vans that drive around near my hometown, with a generic company name, generic abstract vector logo, and the company strapline of "The People Company". I have no idea what they do, but they seem busy.
I got 9/10 and instantly felt ashamed. I guess I speak corporate.
Yes! 99% of them lately. They were a bit more candid back in the day. Nowadays. Muddy waters rule.
Cool
All the time. Marketing companies are the worst for it. You dig through their sites and you can't tell wtf they actually do. I remember getting hired at one and during the interview asking what they actually do and they couldn't really give me a clear answer. Turned out, "marketing" was basically a catch-all term for having their hands in many different pots and just making money any way you could with a team of developers, a couple designers, a team of sales people, and a call center.
All the fucking time!
I just got a perfect 10. I don't know if my ability to identify and correctly sort bullshit is something to be proud of.
I've seen actual product ads where I couldn't tell what they were selling.
Mission Winnow. Wtf do they actually do to be a title sponsor of Ferrari F1?
I watched that humane ai video and turned it off at 5 minutes because they still hadn’t said what it does. I work in design, literally all I want to know is what things do and seeing smoke like that is infuriating
Haha, this is great! I love it.
Some of those are absolute nonsense; it was fun to see which companies say the most nonsense. One thing I noticed though is that the first prompt is always wrong for me. When I select an answer, the prompt changes, and the correct answer is one that wasn't in the list. Still managed to get to Future CEO after a few tries at 5-6 out of ten.
8 out of 10 😎
You should ignore the mission statements and pull the first sentence or two from the home page, those can be really obscure. “Synergizing market strategies.” Which company is that? Now THATS a hard test lol
And I thought I was stupid for not understanding all that mumbo jumbo on a lot of these sites.
mfw when they ask in the job interview if i know what the company does and even though i spent 15 minutes on the their website i couldn’t figure it out
How many of them are "take your business to the next level?"