Another one bites the dust

April 9, 2001 7:39 AM

Another one bites the dust NBC said Monday it is shutting down its loss-ridden Internet subsidiary, acknowledging that any hopes of it becoming profitable had vaporized along with the online advertising market. Many of the 300 jobs there will be eliminated as the unit’s assets are integrated into NBC.
posted by Brilliantcrank (14 comments total)

I don't like when people lose jobs but anything that gets that woman off my TV screen has got to be good.

"Any word, click it, get information!"
"Any word, click it, get information!"
"Any word, click it, get information!"

*BLAM*

It is nice that people with Tourette's Syndrome are getting spots on TV commercials but couldn't they have picked a slightly less annoying spokesperson?
posted by bondcliff at 8:00 AM on April 9, 2001

i think she's a hottie.
posted by jpoulos at 8:03 AM on April 9, 2001

Well, at least they took their job listings down.

And I was hoping to sign up with the team that is "driving the evolution of the Internet with interactive online and on-air content, rich media, search and directory, community features and e-commerce."

So sad.
posted by mtstover at 8:08 AM on April 9, 2001

$245 million on revenues of $31 million.

It was probably a lot worse than that: "credits" funneled around various parts of NBC's (and maybe GEs?) divisions were counted as money, according to an article I read last year.

What annoying, clueless people and commercials! Sometimes, a .com folds and there is sadness, sometimes, glee....
posted by ParisParamus at 8:19 AM on April 9, 2001

The thing is, they never knew what the hell they were doing - they kept repackaging themselves over and over again. Didn't help that Snap and Xoom, the two companies they bought, were internet me-toos.
posted by owillis at 8:24 AM on April 9, 2001

it was never really shown to be a 'superior' product ...

it was just , "hey, i can throw money at this"
posted by a11an at 8:39 AM on April 9, 2001

HAHAHAHA Bondcliff hit the nail on the head. Those commercials were too annoying.
posted by a3matrix at 8:41 AM on April 9, 2001

I just tried the quickclick thing, and the only stuff that was highlighted led to corporate links, hotel accomodations in California, a definition of Tourette's syndrome, some information. Actually I was expecting every word to be a link, even articles.

Any word...click it... get marketing.

Although, I commend them on what seemed to be a very clean uninstall.

On a side note, I think it would be cool if a dictionary resource were able to handle enough hits to make every single word in a browser clickable to the Oxford definition. Could call it quick-dic.
posted by mblandi at 8:53 AM on April 9, 2001

didn't they simply buy xoom.com a while back to use as their community base?
posted by patricking at 9:00 AM on April 9, 2001

You ARE the weakest link, goodbye!
posted by Mick at 9:20 AM on April 9, 2001

This is what you want, mblandi:

I've been using this since it was called Gurunet and it has become THE application I can not live without. This is waht computers were invented for.
posted by bondcliff at 9:21 AM on April 9, 2001

Hmmm.. link didn't show.

Try this
posted by bondcliff at 9:22 AM on April 9, 2001

Neat. Thanks.
posted by mblandi at 11:02 AM on April 9, 2001

Since we're discussing failed Web attempts, I must say that Atomica Flash presentation was too slow and long, and the narrator's voice too annoying. But not as annoying as NBC's thing.
posted by ParisParamus at 12:23 PM on April 9, 2001