4 ms·

How about "Former Google corporate attorney becomes Deputy Director of US Patent Office"? EDIT: (commenting on the article title; not the HN title)

by cgs1019 13y ago

nostrademons 13y ago
I had a coworker once who said he'd found a good anti-Hearst-pattern for Google executives: "Google exec". (A Hearst pattern, for those who aren't well-versed in information retrieval, is like a linguistic template for IS-A relationships. For example, if you see the text "<person>, a <thing>, ..." or "<person> is a <thing>" or "<thing> <person> recently <verb>", you can be reasonably sure that <person> is a <thing>.) In other words, if the press reports someone is a Google exec, they are almost certainly not a Google exec. I've done a few spot checks and this seems to hold up. Andy Rubin, Google's Android executive until recently, is called an "engineer", "founder", and in one case "head honcho" in the press. Larry and Sergey are usually called "founders". Amit Singhal, Google's Search executive, is referred to as "engineer", "chief", and sometimes "senior vice president". Sundar Pichai is referred to as "senior vice president" and "head of android and chrome". Vic Gundotra and Susan Wojcicki each got one mention as "Google exec", but are much more commonly titled "senior vice president" or "head of social/ads & commerce". By contrast, the people who are usually labeled "executives" in the press are often corporate attorneys, regional marketing managers, or mid-level ops managers.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  I have noticed the same. The time it really stood out to me was that guy who started the Facebook page for the Egyptian protests a few years back. The press was reporting him as a "Google executive", but he was actually an Adwords account executive. I don't know if there is a position further from exec than someone who manages Adwords accounts for big customers.
  - nl 13y ago
    "Executive" is commonly used for any reasonably senior management position. This is arguably correct. Executive: relating to the job of managing or directing other people in a company or organizaton[1] Interestingly, for me Googling define:Executive gives the following definition and example: a person with senior managerial responsibility in a business. "account executives" (Note that "account executives" are the specific example given). [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/executive http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/executive
    - jamesaguilar 13y ago
      Right, but my point is that an adwords account exec/manager does not have any managerial responsibility at all. They would be more properly termed account technicians or analysts.

How about "Former Google corporate attorney becomes Deputy Director of US Patent Office"? EDIT: (commenting on the article title; not the HN title)

by cgs1019 13y ago

How about "Former Google corporate attorney becomes Deputy Director of US Patent Office"? EDIT: (commenting on the article title; not the HN title)

nostrademons 13y ago

I had a coworker once who said he'd found a good anti-Hearst-pattern for Google executives: "Google exec". (A Hearst pattern, for those who aren't well-versed in information retrieval, is like a linguistic template for IS-A relationships. For example, if you see the text "<person>, a <thing>, ..." or "<person> is a <thing>" or "<thing> <person> recently <verb>", you can be reasonably sure that <person> is a <thing>.) In other words, if the press reports someone is a Google exec, they are almost certainly not a Google exec. I've done a few spot checks and this seems to hold up. Andy Rubin, Google's Android executive until recently, is called an "engineer", "founder", and in one case "head honcho" in the press. Larry and Sergey are usually called "founders". Amit Singhal, Google's Search executive, is referred to as "engineer", "chief", and sometimes "senior vice president". Sundar Pichai is referred to as "senior vice president" and "head of android and chrome". Vic Gundotra and Susan Wojcicki each got one mention as "Google exec", but are much more commonly titled "senior vice president" or "head of social/ads & commerce". By contrast, the people who are usually labeled "executives" in the press are often corporate attorneys, regional marketing managers, or mid-level ops managers.

jamesaguilar 13y ago
I have noticed the same. The time it really stood out to me was that guy who started the Facebook page for the Egyptian protests a few years back. The press was reporting him as a "Google executive", but he was actually an Adwords account executive. I don't know if there is a position further from exec than someone who manages Adwords accounts for big customers.
- nl 13y ago
  "Executive" is commonly used for any reasonably senior management position. This is arguably correct. Executive: relating to the job of managing or directing other people in a company or organizaton[1] Interestingly, for me Googling define:Executive gives the following definition and example: a person with senior managerial responsibility in a business. "account executives" (Note that "account executives" are the specific example given). [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/executive http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/executive
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    Right, but my point is that an adwords account exec/manager does not have any managerial responsibility at all. They would be more properly termed account technicians or analysts.