Comments on: Microsoft Fast: Confusion over NXT and Folio Billing http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/ by Stephen E. Arnold Thu, 24 May 2012 16:47:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Fast Changes: Ancient Norse Myth Becomes Reality : Beyond Search http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-37517 Fast Changes: Ancient Norse Myth Becomes Reality : Beyond Search Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:13:08 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-37517 [...] Billing confusion plus explanations from Fast professionals here [...] [...] Billing confusion plus explanations from Fast professionals here [...]

]]> By: Peter Ring http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-32591 Peter Ring Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:21:01 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-32591 You can't learn much about Folio and NextPage products from the FAST website. And the NXT-based site (http://erdonline.folio.net) that you refer to is just that - a site based on a NXT content server. To clear up your confusion, ProPublish is not NXT, and NXT is not Folio Views. ProPublish is based on FAST ESP. NXT and FolioViews share some technology (indexing and query), but are otherwise quite different animals. There is a good acount of the history of Folio Corp here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folio_Corporation You can’t learn much about Folio and NextPage products from the FAST website. And the NXT-based site (http://erdonline.folio.net) that you refer to is just that – a site based on a NXT content server.

To clear up your confusion, ProPublish is not NXT, and NXT is not Folio Views. ProPublish is based on FAST ESP. NXT and FolioViews share some technology (indexing and query), but are otherwise quite different animals.

There is a good acount of the history of Folio Corp here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folio_Corporation

]]> By: Jürgen Wagner http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-28504 Jürgen Wagner Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:21:46 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-28504 Stephen, at this point, we'd probably deviate a bit from the original topic and start a discussion about to what extent "semantics" is important and "context knowledge" is relevant to provide proper search experiences. After all, searching is irrelevant - finding is what counts. That's exactly why FAST (and other engines) are successful with their semantic analysis features (entity and relationship extractions, disambiguations, custom extractions, linguistic cleansing, ...) to provide a better end-user experience. Of course, a lot of that does not come out of the box, but that's why FAST (and others) are a bit more complex than Google, right? The right tool for the right job... and in a complex world, not everything must necessarily fit into a Google search box, although they have their merits as well. Cheers, --Jürgen Stephen,
at this point, we’d probably deviate a bit from the original topic and start a discussion about to what extent “semantics” is important and “context knowledge” is relevant to provide proper search experiences. After all, searching is irrelevant – finding is what counts. That’s exactly why FAST (and other engines) are successful with their semantic analysis features (entity and relationship extractions, disambiguations, custom extractions, linguistic cleansing, …) to provide a better end-user experience. Of course, a lot of that does not come out of the box, but that’s why FAST (and others) are a bit more complex than Google, right? The right tool for the right job… and in a complex world, not everything must necessarily fit into a Google search box, although they have their merits as well.

Cheers,
–Jürgen

]]> By: Stephen E. Arnold http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-28493 Stephen E. Arnold Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:05:25 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-28493 Jurgen Wagner, The customer can be emotional if he wishes to be. The customer is "right". The issue of Google relevance is interesting. Perhaps Microsoft Fast should index newsgroups and usenet and show Google how to run a high quality indexing service? Stephen Arnold, November 9, 2008 Jurgen Wagner,

The customer can be emotional if he wishes to be. The customer is “right”. The issue of Google relevance is interesting. Perhaps Microsoft Fast should index newsgroups and usenet and show Google how to run a high quality indexing service?

Stephen Arnold, November 9, 2008

]]> By: Jürgen Wagner http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-28486 Jürgen Wagner Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:25:43 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-28486 Well, the exact status of these products needs to be determined with the respective account representatives. I can't say anything about that, of course. What customers pay for is usually maintenance & support, but this could also be a case of a non-perpetual license that needs to be renewed. This may even be a per-use contract, so continued billing is fine. We can't really say without knowing the details. In any case, I would put this event into the category of merger-related irritations... In no way taking either one of both sides (Microsoft/FAST or the customers), I simply want to point out that this kind of mess is not specific to Microsoft, FAST or any other company. I've seen that in other cases of mergers/take-overs as well. In that respect, I don't quite understand the highly emotional reaction... The customer should put the position into nice words and decline payment, or read his/her contract properly and notice they have to pay indeed. The latter may be a case for immediate cancellation of subscriptions and reason to look out for a product replacement. Ah, and about your Google results on FAST NXT: that's a typical case of trash results as Google does not have a clue about what they return. The documents produced by a somewhat not properly configured instance of NXT will generate this headline. Cheers, --Jürgen Well, the exact status of these products needs to be determined with the respective account representatives. I can’t say anything about that, of course.

What customers pay for is usually maintenance & support, but this could also be a case of a non-perpetual license that needs to be renewed. This may even be a per-use contract, so continued billing is fine. We can’t really say without knowing the details. In any case, I would put this event into the category of merger-related irritations… In no way taking either one of both sides (Microsoft/FAST or the customers), I simply want to point out that this kind of mess is not specific to Microsoft, FAST or any other company. I’ve seen that in other cases of mergers/take-overs as well. In that respect, I don’t quite understand the highly emotional reaction… The customer should put the position into nice words and decline payment, or read his/her contract properly and notice they have to pay indeed. The latter may be a case for immediate cancellation of subscriptions and reason to look out for a product replacement.

Ah, and about your Google results on FAST NXT: that’s a typical case of trash results as Google does not have a clue about what they return. The documents produced by a somewhat not properly configured instance of NXT will generate this headline.

Cheers,
–Jürgen

]]> By: Stephen E. Arnold http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-28473 Stephen E. Arnold Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:12:34 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-28473 Jürgen Wagner, If discontinued, is it appropriate for a licensee to be charged? I am on the fence on this matter. If the company uses the product, I say, "Bill the outfit." On the other hand, if it's discontinued and not supported, then I say, "No way, José." Either way, if your information is accurate, it appears that some customers don't know that the products in questions are road kill. Stephen Arnold, November 9, 2008 Jürgen Wagner,

If discontinued, is it appropriate for a licensee to be charged? I am on the fence on this matter. If the company uses the product, I say, “Bill the outfit.” On the other hand, if it’s discontinued and not supported, then I say, “No way, José.” Either way, if your information is accurate, it appears that some customers don’t know that the products in questions are road kill.

Stephen Arnold, November 9, 2008

]]> By: Jürgen Wagner http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/11/08/microsoft-fast-confusion-over-nxt-and-folio-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-28470 Jürgen Wagner Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:56:16 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=2881#comment-28470 To my knowledge, FAST ProPublish (NXT) was one of the discontinued products after the takeover by Microsoft. Another one is FAST Radar... This explains, why the Microsoft FAST website does not mention ProPublish or NXT. To my knowledge, FAST ProPublish (NXT) was one of the discontinued products after the takeover by Microsoft. Another one is FAST Radar…

This explains, why the Microsoft FAST website does not mention ProPublish or NXT.

]]>