Two Dinosaurs: Two Behaviors
October 17, 2008
My newsreader is showing me some interesting material today. As a gloomy dark afternoon gives way to an evening Jack the Ripper would like, I noticed two information-centric articles. In one story, a dinosaur checked out the weather and found a way to get temporarily out of the storm. The other dinosaur found another dinosaur and together endured the hail, rain, and lightning strikes.
The first dinosaur is the Telegraph, a traditional newspaper operation. In a moment of stunning pragmatism, the Telegraph decided to invite a Googler to join the newspaper’s Board of Directors. This company may be a dinosaur, but management is definitely willing to seek shelter with someone who knows how to avoid the abuses of certain financial problems. You can read the story Google’s Lorraine Twohill Joins Telegraph Board here. The story suggests that the Telegraph board will seek some inputs from Ms. Twohill about multimedia. Google’s been around a decade. It’s good that a traditional newspaper is taking action. Ms. Twohill is a true Googler, but her inputs may be too late to keep the Telegraph from the fate that awaits most dead tree outfits.
The second dinosaur–the one that’s standing in the rain watching lightning strikes–is Wolters Kluwer. This traditional publishing company has signed a deal with Convera to create vertical search engines. These two outfits will, according to the story here, will build an index about nursing. Please, read the short item “Convera Enters Contract with Wolters Kluwer to Build Vertical Search Engines for NursingCenter.com here.” Next take a gander at the financial data about Convera here. Then read this information about Google’s custom search engine here. Our tests with Google’s customer search engine suggested that we could build a vertical search engine, monetize it, and dress up the results for free. Google may be charging some people, but the GOOG happily generated a Beyond Search vertical search engine.
What’s the difference between these two dinosaurs. The Telegraph seems to be making an effort to learn from Googzilla. The Wolters Kluwer group has embraced technology from Convera, a company that has several distinctions. One of them is that the firm created some dissonance with Intel and the NBA in the same year, sold its enterprise search business to its competitors, and has chosen to compete in a market segment where Google makes available a similar service at a very compelling cost.
I find these two strategies interesting. I hope both the Telegraph and Wolters Kluwer find success with their new tactical moves. From my hollow in Kentucky, these organizations needed to take action seven or eight years ago. The traditional publishing sector faces some tough times. As Steve Jobs suggested, “Kids don’t read anymore.” The online world has bubbled up around the hand made shoes worn by publishing executives. Now it’s tough to extricate oneself.
In my opinion, time is running out. I will give the Telegraph better odds than Wolters Kluwer. The Telegraph is investing in a Googzilla-trained executive. Wolters Kluwer seems to be wagering on a dark horse with a bit of a financial history and a financial present.
Agree? Disagree? I am excited to think that those familiar with dinosaurs might provide some facts to help me decide if my view of these dinosaur decisions is on the beam or without illumination.
Stephen Arnold, October 17, 2008
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3 Responses to “Two Dinosaurs: Two Behaviors”
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I partially agree with you Steve. Wolters Kluwer´s decision to choose Convera for a vertical search initiative in the consumer market doesn´t make a lot of sense to me, to be honest. However, I must say, that the success of the US nursery project will not be related to the technological selection they´ve made (as you´ve indirectly mentioned there´re aren´t many differentiators between software vendors in the site search arena); the success of a vertical search project comes from the ability to align vertical access patterns with vertical data. That is, the challenge is not technological only, but it´s more to do with understanding the particular needs of the user and being able to design access scenarios that answer vertical questions in a relevant and simple way. In my view, the vertical search products that have previously had any success (health, property, law, etc), the search product had very little to do with it.
Bojar Ramirez
One man’s dinosaur is another man’s labradoodle (designer dog created by breeding a labrador retriever and a poodle).
Stephen Arnold, October 17, 2008
that´s right, success comes from the hands of the artisan!