Nexplore: Search Redefined… Again
October 2, 2008
Nexplore’s mission is:
to radically improve the online experience. We provide Web tools and destinations that empower people to drive and define a World Wide Web perfectly suited for their unique needs, interests, and online pursuits….Leveraging advances in Web 2.0 technology, NeXplore engineers develop cutting-edge social computing websites, portals and downloadable applications that elevate online productivity, community and comfort to new heights.
Several readers sent me a link to this service today. I had been alerted to the company several months ago. I gravitate to systems that deliver intelligence-type functions. Readers of this Web log know this because I refer to Silobreaker, Sprylogics, and other answer-oreiented systems more frequently than I do ad-centric search systems. That’s my bias, and I won’t be shifting my mental longitude anytime soon.
On Octobe 1, 2008, Nexplore–a publicly traded company OTC:NXPC.PK announced an updated version of the company’s search system. You can try out the system here. For information about the company, click here. The news release said that enhancements include:
- Interface tweaks; for example, you can collapse certain lists and see the icons now. The previous version of Nexplore used icons too small for my aging goose eyes. Worms I can smell; icons I have to see.
- Performance tuning. The version released on October 1, 2008, seemed snappier to me. The system doesn’t deliver at Google speed, but the system is more usable than before.
- Social features. I am still cautious when it comes to “social” functions on public networks. Anyone thinking about Phorm as you read this? I am. Nevertheless, Nexplore allows you to use the company’s patent pending social sharing feature. The idea is that you can bookmark sites and share those bookmarks.
I ran several queries. My old chestnut “enterprise search” returned some useful results. I noticed a bias to Microsoft, which may be a consequence of what the company is spidering. Here’s the results I saw on October 1, 2008, at 8 30 pm Eastern:
The display looks very similar to those used by some eDiscovery firms. The center pane presents the relevance ranked results. The upper portion of the results list are ads and below the rule are the “organic” results. The left hand column is used for ads, clearly marked “Sponsor Results”. The left hand column provides suggested terms and a list of definitions appearing in Wikipedia “associated” with my search. When I moved my mouse over the results, previews of Web sites appeared. I dismiss these, probably due to my age and my desire to have an interface stay put as I try to figure out what I am being shown and what the usefulness of the results are to me. A younger, more flexible mind will find the pop ups more helpful. I don’t like them, never did and never will. In the results list for “enterprise search” Microsoft ranked well above Fast Search & Transfer. I think this reflects the role of Fast Search in the giant belly of the beast quite accurately. In fact, if I knew zero about enterprise search, the Nexplore results were quite useful.
My other interesting query is for “beyond search”. This phrase points to this Web log on Google today (October 1, 2008). On Nexplore, the number one result is the Seattle-based search engine optimization company. My study for Gilbane Group is the third hit after the advertisements and the Web log itself is the number six hit. This is not a big deal to me, and it probably makes the SEO group happy. The Beyond Search goose doesn’t really care. He’s too old. One feature I liked was the ability to click the “trash” icon to remove a result from the hit list. (Farewell, beyond search SEO group in Seattle.)
Nexplore operates from Frisco, a suburb near Dallas-Fort Worth in what Texans call the Metroplex, which is foreign territory to this goose. The financial informatoin available to me was modest. In fact, the data were incomplete with losses showing for the period from 2006 to the present. See for yourself by clicking here. The CEO is Edward Mandel. The CFO is Steven Gummer. And the CTO is Dion Hinchcliffe. Mr. Hinchcliffe writes a articles. For an example, click here. He also writes a Web log here. The content focuses on the social computing trend. He includes some interesting illustrations in his writings. Show below is the “General Transformation Process of Busijess to 2.0 in the 21st Century. You can read his the original graphic here.
I want to give Nexplore time to refine its product and give it a chance to make headway in what is a tough sector. I see some features that don’t appeal to me, but I found similar issues with Cuil.com. My recommendation is to give the system a test drive. I find it useful to run the same query across multiple sites. Gems often turn up. I have to remind people that Dogpile.com is a useful metasearch engine. I am willing to give under dogs plenty of leash. Perhaps you will give it a whirl as well?
Stephen Arnold, October 2, 2008
Microsoft: Cloud OS Cold Front
October 2, 2008
Update, October 2, 2008, 4 55 pm Eastern: Good Morning Silicon Valley has an interesting take on Amazon’s rush to support Windows on AWS. You can read this story here.
Original Post
The newsreader is chock full of cloudy goodness. The warm front concern Microsoft’s announcement that a “Cloud OS” is moving from Redmond worldwide. You can read Jeremy Kirk’s “Ballmer: Microsoft Will Soon Release Windows Cloud OS” here. The announcement coincidentally overlapped Amazon’s news that that it would roll out “Amazon EC2 with Windows” soon. You can read the Amazon “official” announcement here.
For my own intellectual benefit, I want to look first at the Microsoft Cloud OS announcement and then the Amazon “Windows on EC2” announcement. To wrap up, I want to offer my view of these two developments. As I state in my editorial policies for this Web log, I may change my mind as I get more information. If this adaptability in the light of new information troubles you, click off to YouTube.com and watch a Google video. You will learn more than from me, the addled goose.
The Microsoft Cloud OS
A year ago, I had to grind through information about Microsoft’s Dynamics Live, a hosted customer relationship management service that Microsoft was building. I haven’t paid much attention to Dynamics Live or Live Dynamics (whatever it was called) for three reasons:
- Microsoft Dynamics is a collection of separate products such as Solomon and Great Plains accounting plus some other companies and Microsoft-developed solutions. I do recall at to use one of the products I had to learn X++. I did not spend too much time thinking about X++ then nor since.
- Microsoft’s own writes up about Dynamics Live or Live Dynamics contained confusing information. For example, the service would be available from Microsoft but via Certified Partners and directly from Microsoft under certain conditions. I couldn’t figure out what was available from whom until I encountered point three below.
- There was no service beyond some demonstrations to which I couldn’t get access.
Bottom line for my research: talk but no deliverable. The reason was that Microsoft lacked the plumbing to deliver on premises applications from data centers without stumbling into the roadblocks that hit ASP (remember the application service provide baloney) from five or six years ago. Bandwidth was an issue. Reliability was an issue. Performance was an issue. Security was an issue. In short, the ASP gold rush turned to fool’s gold because delivering enterprise applications from the cloud was different from service data or Web pages from the cloud.
Now I learn that “coming soon” will be a cloud operating system which Mr. Kirk describes as a “Windows cloud”, quoting Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. Mr. Kirk’s most significant statement in my opinion is this passage:
Ballmer was short on details, saying more information would spoil the announcement. Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the OS Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista.
I am looking forward to Microsoft’s Cloud OS. The system will have to address the issues I identified with the cloud-based CRM products in my analysis (performance, inter-program interoperability, and interface congruence) and the issues I identified as plaguing the ASP delivery of Microsoft Exchange in the ASP hay day, a short lived hay day I might add.
It is easy to write about technology. In my experience, it is harder to deliver technology that makes good on what speech writers and marketing mavens craft before hitting the local Starbucks’ for a mocha latte.
Amazon’s Announcement
I am deeply curious about Amazon. The company is out Googling Google and cutting deals with the GOOG for music on T Mobile’s Android-based device. I keep thinking Google-zon, but maybe I should consider Ama-Google. Amazon faces fewer legal hassles than Google. And Amazon spends less on infrastructure than Googzilla. Furthermore, the Microsoft-Amazon relationship is one that I cannot pin down. Microsoft and Amazon are working in the same city and environs. The two companies don’t show much outward affection for one another. Yet I hear fragments that lead me to believe that Microsoft is a secret supporter of Amazon. This may be a false impression based on a skewed sample, but then I learn about Amazon deploying Windows Server on Amazon EC2. Here’s what Amazon’s chief technical guru said on September 30, 2008, here after reminding me that Amazon customers are asking to “run on Windows”:
There are many different reasons why customers have requested Windows Server; for example many customers want to run ASP.NET websites using Internet Information Server and use Microsoft SQL Server as their database. Amazon EC2 running Windows Server enables this scenario for building scalable websites. In addition, several customers would like to maintain a global single Windows-based desktop environment using Microsoft Remote Desktop, and Amazon EC2 is a scalable and dependable platform on which to do so.
So Amazon is able to date both Google and Microsoft. I find that clever.
My Take
My thoughts are simple minded. What do you expect from an addled goose:
- I am missing something in the Amazon – Microsoft interaction. Why would Microsoft announce a Cloud OS and almost at the same time allow Amazon to create its own cloud version of Windows?
- Microsoft has the burden of Vista plus the border skirmishes with Google in the enterprise. Can the Redmond whiz kids manage the Xbox business, Zunes, Windows 7, and the Cloud OS. Aren’t these quite different programming and marketing jobs?
- And Google? What’s the GOOG’s play in the cloud? So far, Google, compared to Amazon, has been lagging. Why is this? Does Google know something that I can’t get my beak into?
More information needed. Any of my two or three readers care to contribute? Use the comments section to this Web log.
Stephen Arnold, October 2, 2008
Microsoft: Frequent Searcher Points and Free Enterprise Search
October 1, 2008
Ina Fried’s “Microsoft Still Paying People to Search” is a useful reminder that Microsoft is “still paying people to search”. You can read various wizards’ comments at Search Engine Journal, LiveSide, and others. I quite liked the approach taken by Nathania Johnson, Search Engine Watch, in her “Microsoft Launches SearchPerks; Like Credit Card Rewards, Except for Search here.” For me, the most interesting point in her write up was this passage:
Microsoft’s Frederick Savoye, senior director at Live Search, assured me that this is an incentive program that fits into their three overall pillars of search: [a] Delivering the best search results [b] Simplifying key tasks such as booking airline, travel, shopping, finding user opinions, etc. [c] Innovating the business model. (Note: I did a bit of format tweaking to keep the passage from becoming hard to read]
The announcement comes hard on the heels of the news that Microsoft will be hurt by the financial problems sweeping through the US and threatening the European markets (more information here) and that Microsoft will make Oslo, Norway, the pivot point for its search research (more information on that here).
I wanted to offer several observations before the addled goose brain I have forgets them.
- Frequent flier blues. Earning points for search is a good idea. I have quite a few air miles, but the airlines change the threshold for an award or retire the miles before I can use them. I am, therefore, deeply indifferent to usage credits because of how other customer reward programs have tricked me.
- Can’t buy me love. I am a rental. I sell time. When someone buys my time, I love them. When that someone doesn’t pay me, I don’t love them. As long as the pay is commensurate with the work, I go along with my rent-my-time approach to business. I don’t think the dough offered for me to change my habits, the automated scripts, and the free Google crawls I run every couple of hours is sufficient for me. For a critical mass of Web users, I am skeptical. I don’t think payola will work in search, but it worked for a while in radio someone told me.
- Business model silliness. Google’s business model is that someone pays Google to give away services. Users of Google expect free or low cost services to avoid the ads. Giving away free services without a third party paying or just paying people to use a service is not a business model. The tactic is marketing. I see these ploys as a type of discount coupon for tires, “Buy three and get one free”. The cost of the fourth tire is covered in the markup on the first three tires, the extra charge for balancing, or the labor cost to undo the lug nuts and put the new tires on.
In the consumer Web space, Google maintains and may be incrementally increasing its market share. I think that some of the research outfits tracking Web search share report that Google is north of 65 percent of the search traffic now. I have some first hand and anecdotal data that indicate the 65 percent figure may be low. From where I sit in my Kentucky hollow with my geese, Google’s market share in Web search is close enough to two-thirds for me. With Ask.com, Microsoft, and Yahoo chopping up the remainder, paying users probably won’t have a significant impact. Users choose what to search. Once habits in online form, those habits can be tough to change. The malarkey about search being a one click easy decision does not reflect the fact that “habits, like a soft bed, are easy to fall into and hard to get out of.” That’s a quote from Miss Costello’s sixth grade classroom poster. Miss Costello was my teacher in the 1950s. Pretty accurate statement for Web search I believe, even 50 years after I first read the message.
A quick horizon scan reveals that in enterprise search, the “give away” approach to market share is keeping Microsoft in the enterprise search game. But vendors tell me that sales of their SharePoint search plug ins continue to sell. What vendors are reaping the rewards of the SharePoint search opportunity. I can’t include the dozens who play in this space but Coveo, Endeca, ISYS Search Software, and Vivisimo have told me or hinted that SharePoint represents a good market. In fact, one vendor told me that the SharePoint market is stronger since Microsoft rolled out free SharePoint, enhanced MOSS, and bought the complex Fast Search & Transfer Enterprise Search System. In one engagement, the vendor was hired quickly, replacing the incumbent Microsoft system with minimal red tape. In the enterprise search sector, where user annoyances are commonplace, Microsoft is not yet paying people to use its search system, but Microsoft may have to take more aggressive steps to keep third party vendors out of the SharePoint members-only club.
To sum up, the search game for the Web and in the enterprise are quite different. Microsoft will have to find a way to leap frog in both markets. That will take some doing. I am excited to learn what Redmond will do on both search fronts. Google, of course, has a more integrated approach to search, which I think may present both technical and cost challenges to Microsoft.
Stephen Arnold, October 1, 2008
Oracle: Soccer Mom Strategy
October 1, 2008
I have been thinking about the low profile Secure Enterprise Search 10g has had since May 2008. Oracle bought my lunch, gave a dog-and-pony show, and commented on my addled goose Web log. That was it. At the Oracle shin dig last week near the old Sea World, Oracle revealed its strategy for maintaining its grip on the enterprise database market. Oracle is implementing what I call the “soccer mom strategy.” Here’s how it works:
- Get a big vehicle. An SUV or a Cadillac Escalade will do
- Stuff it full of kids, soccer balls, cleats, coolers, and maybe a big friendly dog or two
- Drive it to a destination
- Unleash the goodies within
- Load up again and repeat.
Here’s how Oracle implements this procedure. Click here to read the news release about Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus 10.1.3.4 (Oracle BI Suite EE Plus). Now this is a stuffed minivan, and you can get options. These range from Oracle’s security server to a platoon of Oracle engineers to customized your OBISEEP to your heart’s content.
A soccer mom implementing her “pack it in” strategy before picking up the team, delivering the kids, and then ferrying the little ones back to their homes. Whew.
What’s going on?
In addition to data management and support you get
- The Oracle EPM Workspace. “EPM” is Oracle speak for enterprise performance management, which is utilities and an interface to make Oracle go faster without adding CPUs and clusters right out of the box. The Workspace allows a database administrator with knowledge of business intelligence to make it easier for end-users, and I quote, “to access and interact with Oracle BI data alongside Oracle EPM System data through a single, thin-client Web interface”
Google Inches toward Becoming a Management Touchstone
October 1, 2008
If you have tried to call Google, you probably wonder how the company can continue to thrive. Googley does not often translate into management sophistication. At a recent conference, the Google staff abandoned its exhibit booth, leaving those wanting information looking at the vacant space.
Imagine my surprise when I read this MSNBC story on September 30, 2008. Aaron Ricadela’s “Intuit Taps Hewlett Packard and Google for Advice”. The new CEO (Brad Smith) at Intuit sought out executives from a number of companies, including Google and Facebook. The result of these conversations, according to Mr. Ricadela was that Intuit will allow its engineers to use 10 percent of their work time for skunk work and personal projects. Facebook’s CEO, the Googley Sheryl Sandberg, offered some tips on forming communities around the Intuit accounting program.
Good for Mr. Smith. Intuit survived several go rounds with Microsoft. By seeking ideas from such companies as Google and Facebook, he is tapping into a non-traditional brand of management theory. Business schools are rushing to keep pace with the Google approach to business. Its features include going slow, showing pundits lava lamps and quirky whiteboard messages, and relying on permanent beta tests instead of products that launch and fail.
Will the Googley approach to management work? Maybe. If Mr. Smith learned about management from Google, I hope he learned that Google could without much effort launch a cloud based version of Intuit’s products tomorrow, maybe in two days. Microsoft battled Intuit in terms of a buy out, a local software installation, and with after-thought online functionality. Google, on the other hand, is all cloud, all the time.
How will this play out? Google has made no overt moves to create an online competitor to Microsoft Money or Intuit’s flag ship accounting service. We will have to wait and see if Google rolls out a beta. That will be quite a management tip for Mr. Smith if it happens.
Stephen Arnold, October 1, 2008
Canada Draws a Bead on Google – Yahoo
October 1, 2008
Marketwatch reported on September 29, 2008, in “Kent Hiring Hints at Threat for Yahoo Google Deal” here. John Letzing’s well written story runs down the various legal initiatives under way to squash the Google – Yahoo tie up. For me, the most important part of the story is this passage:
David Kent, a litigator and antitrust expert in private practice with Toronto-based McMillan LLP, acknowledged Monday that he has been retained by the Canadian Department of Justice to review the proposed partnership between Yahoo and Google. He also declined any further comment.
Google’s attorneys will face a busy fall and winter because Mr. Kent is a high-profile litigator likely to challenge the Googley crew. As I pointed out in my 2005 The Google Legacy and my 2007 Google Version 2.0, Google could be crippled by litigation. In my opinion, I think it may be difficult to convince some advertisers that online advertising alternatives exist. Google has been largely ignored for years. Now one business sector is realizing that Google operates in a different zone from traditional competitors. The law is unfamiliar with Google’s meta-methods and will have to do some fast work to reign in the Goggle juggernaut. The problem is that lawyers and fast action are somewhat incompatible.
Could these actions boil down to “Lingua factiosi, inertes opera” as Plautus said. (If you don’t recall your high school Latin, that’s roughly “All talk and no action.”
Stephen Arnold, October 1, 2008
Microsoft Search: Norway to Be a Nerve Center
October 1, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on September 30, 2008, here that “Norway [will be a] key Microsoft search center. The story carries an Associated Press logo, so I can’t link to it. The general idea is that after buying Fast Search in April 2008, Microsoft has decided to tap Norway as the location for an important search research center. The current Fast Search staff will be expended to 350 people, up from 300. The announcement is good news for Fast Search’s staff and for Norway. As more information becomes available, I will try to reference it. Note: the Associated Press stories have a tendency to disappear. If the link goes bad, I may not be able to update it.
Stephen Arnold, October 1, 2008
Microsoft: Another Search Guru
September 30, 2008
Kara Swisher, Boom Town scoopette extraordinaire, reports another change in Microsoft search management. Her “Yusuf Mehdi Get a Big New Job at MSN-But Still No Digital Head in Sight”. You can read this well-crafted article here. Ms. Swisher points out that Mr. Mehdi is now part of a “troika” that consists of Brian McAndrews and Satya Nadella. For me the most interesting point in her article was:
Who will lead this three-headed beast is still unknown–both Mehdi and McAndrews have been considered the top internal candidates to lead the online properties group, which has been struggling for direction after Microsoft’s failed takeover of Yahoo (YHOO).
My take on this is that I need a score card to keep track of who has responsibility for what search business at Microsoft. Missing from this is the Fast Search & Transfer management team. Despite Fast Search’s colorful enterprise search past, the company still has a core competence in Web search. Is there a pipeline from the brains in Norway to Redmond? In my youth, sluggish systems would often be improved by throwing hardware at the problem. For Microsoft, I am starting to form the view that Redmond is throwing people at the problem.
Each day, the gap widens between Google and Microsoft. The bridge to close the gap won’t be built of management timber. A different approach is needed; for example, a leap frog solution.
Stephen Arnold, September 30, 2008
Silobreaker: Mary Ellen Bates’ Opinion Is on Target
September 30, 2008
Mary Ellen Bates is one sharp information professional. She moved from Washington, DC, to the sunny clime in Colorado. The shift from the nation’s capital (the US crime capital) to the land of the Prairie Lark Finch has boosted her acumen. Like me, she finds much goodness in the Silobreaker.com service. (You can read an interview with one of the founders of Silobreaker.com here.) Writing in the September number of Red Orbit here she said:
What Silobreaker does particularly well is provide you with visual displays of information, which enable you to spot trends or relationships that might not be initially obvious. Say, for example, you want to find out about transgenic research. Start with what Silobreaker calls the “360[degrees] search,” which looks across its indexes, including fields for entities (people, companies, locations, organizations, industries, and keywords), news stories, YouTube videos, blog postings, and articles.
If you want to try Silobreaker yourself, click here. With Ms. Bates in the wilds of Colorado and me in a hollow in rural Kentucky, I am gratified that news about next-generation information services reaches us equally. A happy quack to Silobreaker and Ms. Bates.
Stephen Arnold, September 30, 2008
Google and the NSA: An Alleged Document
September 30, 2008
I don’t have any comment about this document, which appears to contain information about Google and the puzzle palace. Oh, I’m sorry the National Security Agency or NSA. You can read Google Blogoscoped’s comments here. The addled goose doesn’t dip its beak into the se waters. If you are hungrier than this water fowl, have at it. My view on these alleged tie ups between information literate companies and government agencies is that I don’t want to be involved. If you really want to get the inside scoop, fly into BWI Airport, rent a car, and drive on down to the nerve center of the puzzle palace. Lots of friendly people around. I’m sure you will get some useful information. Just don’t push those goose feathers to me.
Stephen Arnold, September 30, 2008
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