Online Social Systems: Flirting Is Popular
January 16, 2009
Jemima Kiss, writing in the Guardian, crafted a fetching headline: “Facebook Is… A Place for Flirting, Says Research.” You can read the original story here. She snags one of the Pew Internet and American Life studies and highlights this “finding”:
One in five users of MySpace and Facebook have admitted they use the Web sites to flirt, according to new research on US social networking trends. Most networking activity, around 89%, is focused on contacting existing friends, while 57% use sites to make plans with friends and only 49% use them to make new contacts.
For me, the key point is that 20 somethings arrive at their job already connected. Pew Internet’s own news release on this study and its findings provides another interesting factoid here:
The share of adult Internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% in 2005 to 35% now…
Let me think through what’s going on in my addled goose mind. More adults are jumping into social networks. Some of those adults are using these sites for recreational purposes. Three out of four young people in the 18 to 24 age group are connected. An organization now faces the distinct possibility that its policies about Internet access may need revisiting. The de facto use of social networks, if the Pew data are correct, is for recreation. An organization that deploys its own social network must make certain its assumptions about the use of the organization’s social network align with the usage habits of its 18 to 24 year old staff. The older workers embracing the social network may require coaching to reduce their concerns about security. At a time when budget pressures are rising, a social system–for example, social search with collaboration built in–may incur costs that the licensees’ have not anticipated. Vendors and consultants pushing social search and related systems pooh pooh the concerns that I am considering. I don’t anticipate social system cheerleaders altering their sales pitch in the near term.
Stephen Arnold, January 16, 2009
Aster Data: $12 Million More in Funding
January 16, 2009
Aster Data is one of those companies that interests me. Although not directly in the search and content processing sector, the company’s technology has significant implications for organization struggling with petascale data flows. On January 13, 2009, the company announced here that it has raised an additional $12 million in Series B funding. The Aster technology, based on my analyses, is Googley. In my 2005 study The Google Legacy, I pointed out that Google’s engineering would influence other companies. In short, I argued, whether Google succeeded or failed, the Google legacy would be to make it easier for other innovators to build on the Google learnings and examples. (You can order a copy of The Google Legacy here. Its content is germane today because Google’s recent moves are anticipated and their effects described in this 2005 analysis.) The Aster Data news story said:
Aster nCluster provides an always-on, always-parallel MPP architecture with the In-Database MapReduce programming framework for business-critical applications. Unlike traditional analytic databases, Aster’s online fault tolerance and hands-free administration allows it to run on low cost, commodity hardware. Aster delivers automated one-click scaling, recovery, backup, restore, and upgrades – enabling enterprises to maintain current staffing levels, even as data sizes multiply each year.
The total funding for the company is now over $20 million. In addition to JAFCO, Sequoia and several other high profile funding sources have supported the company. More information about Aster Data is here.
Google Shutters Trondheim Office
January 15, 2009
According to Adressa.no here, Google has closed its office. The reason is that the company wants to streamline its operations. Google itself has not said, “The Trondheim office is closed.” Pia Martin Wold and Kristoffer Furberg’s story here suggests that the lack of skilled labor may be a contributing factor. A story by Marius Jørgenrud and Ander Brenna here adds some color to this development. Their story appeared in Digi.no. Trondheim is not a large operation for Google, but the city has a solid technical reputation, particularly in search. Google’s office in Luleå, Sweden, may be on the same track as well. Beyond Search believes that small Google offices add to costs, so concentration in larger cities makes financial sense. Microsoft may be able to snag some of the former Googlers. A happy quack to the Beyond Search reader who alerted us to this second alleged reduction in force at the Google. The first wave of cutbacks affected contractors. The second allegedly cut loose 100 recruiters. Now comes, if true, closures of small offices.
Stephen Arnold, January 15, 2009
Googzilla: Subtle No More
January 15, 2009
TechCrunch ran a very interesting article called “Gmail Grew 43 Percent Last Year. AOL Mail And Hotmail Need To Start Worrying” here. The story provides meat on the bone of the headline. I loved the chart showing the GOOG moving on, keeping on. After reading this article, you will want to pop over to this official Google page and read about the GOOG’s utility to migrate Web logs from one service to another. Like Gmail, the migration tool will wow the Python heads and leave others cold. Over time, the migration tool will probably get some tweaks and then one day, the GOOG is the big dog in the blog house. Competitors who ignore Google’s emulation of American revolutionaries in buckskins will find themselves on the wrong end of the bayonet. The tactics are explained in more detail here.
Stephen Arnold, January 15, 2009
Dead Tree Publishers in Italy Build a Hadrian’s Wall
January 15, 2009
Hadrian’s wall is an interesting tourist stop. Archaeologists continue to thrive as rubbish pits are exhumed and effluvia from the garrisons reveal the secrets of a miserable life far from Rome. Now Italian publishers (yep, the dead tree crowd entrenched in paper, ink, and 15th century business processes) are creating a digital Hadrian’s Wall. Perhaps one day far in the future, scholars will twiddle bits to figure out the secrets of traditional publishers nine years into the 21st century. You can read about this development in the International Herald Tribune (a thin thing I scan whilst in an airport outside the US) here. The article is called “Italian Publishers Form Online Alliance.” There’s no author on the version I scanned online. The source is another dead tree outfit, Thomson Reuters. The idea is that big newspapers are going to team up to create “an online alliance.” The article points out that newspapers have been affected by the downturn in readership, advertising, rising costs, etc. Not much of a surprise in my opinion.
For me the most important comment in the article was:
In the United States, several newspaper publishers have already formed consortiums to take advantage of rising online advertising. About 800 U.S. newspaper Web sites in the Newspaper Consortium have arranged a partnership with Yahoo, and several top U.S. newspaper publishers have formed an advertising sales network called quadrantONE.
The idea that there are 800 newspapers working in concert in the US was news to me. This means that there is another digital Hadrian’s Wall probably running through the wilds of Kentucky. My ignorance knows no bounds, but I am an addled goose. If there is a consortium, what is the group doing to generate significant revenues for its members. The Chicago Tribune is introducing a tabloid version of the newspaper and retaining the traditional “big” paper. Okay, that’s one way to make sales I suppose. In Detroit one newspaper is producing a hard copy three days a week. That will thrill advertisers and readers who want sports news for a game played last night. Well, the newspaper will provide the news in a couple of days. That will work too, right? If the Courier Journal (the local newspaper) gets any smaller, I won’t be able to wrap trash in it.
Italy is building a digital Hadrian’s Wall. The US newspaper publishers already have one. The problem is that the walls won’t do much if anything to reverse what is a problem brought about by a change in the way in which people think about timely information.
I would wager that Hadrian himself would point out the folly of a digital wall. He used troops who killed intruders. Now the enemy is the children of the newspaper media wizards. My hunch is that the progeny of the newspaper barons use iPhones and the Google, not hard copy documents to keep up with what’s happening.
Stephen Arnold, January 15, 2009
Good Bye Recruiters, Hello Resellers
January 15, 2009
The Romans ran out of citizens wiling to fight for their plot of land. The solution was mercenaries. Now Google has crossed its Rubicon. Its first ever layoffs balanced Google’s expansion of its Google Apps’s reseller program. You can read a good description of the play in Ars Technica here. What I liked was the inclusion of a video explaining the program. Why write when you can make a video, which has big implications for competitors who want to match Google’s marketing of its new push. Google will become a formidable competitor in the enterprise sector with its army of mercenaries.
Stephen Arnold, January 15, 2009
Microsoft, Certified Gold Partners, and SharePoint Search
January 15, 2009
ChannelInsider.com posted a bombshell of a commentary in my opinion here. Pedro Pereira’s “Is Microsoft the Managed Services market’s Biggest Enemy?” makes some interesting assertions. The essay certainly caused this addled goose’s tiny brain to cycle two or three times. The premise of the article is that Microsoft has worked hard to round up “channel partners”. These are the companies who pay to take tests, send engineers to Microsoft classes, and agree to various terms and conditions to achieve the coveted “certified” endorsement. Mr. Pereira wrote:
But as the managed services market matures, you have to wonder how long the world’s largest software company plans to sit on the sidelines. And while you’re at it, you might chew on this: When Microsoft finally gets serious about managed services, will it do so as a partner to the channel, as a competitor or both?
Mr. Pereira identifies a number of high profile channel partners who may generate revenues that Microsoft covets. In effect, will Microsoft take the big, juicy engagements and keep the lion’s share of the revenue. IBM has morphed into a services business with an interesting history. Perhaps Microsoft will follow in IBM’s footsteps in order to keep the company’s revenue growth stable or growing.
Disrupting Microsoft channel partner structure could prove costly. If Microsoft changes the game for “certified” partners, the reconstruction may open the door to plug compatible alternatives that are no longer “certified”. Even more interesting is Google’s opportunity to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the scenario Channel Insider describes. Image source: http://gees.usc.edu/GEES/RecentEQ/India_Gujarat/photos/photobyrediff/mdf10294.jpg
Mr. Pereira cites survey data new to me. He wrote:
A Channel Insider survey conducted over the summer found that 25 percent of MSPs have switched platforms three times, 21 percent once and 18 percent twice. Seven percent of participants reported that they have switched platforms a staggering 10 times. Yes, there are enough platforms out there to switch that many times.
As I thought about this interesting write up, several ideas occurred to me. I don’t want to lose them; to wit:
IBM Wins the Patent Derby
January 15, 2009
Reuters posted a story on Yahoo News about the 2008 patent derby. You can read the story here if it has not been deleted by the Yahoo team. Yahoo News articles can be tough to find sometimes. IBM, according to the article, was awarded 4,186 patents by the often criticized US Patent & Trademark Office. Runner up Microsoft obtained 2,030 patents, and chip giant Intel snared 1,776. What I found interesting was that according to my tally of Google patents, Googzilla generated a total of about 200 US patent documents, based on my quick look on January 14, 2009. That’s fewer than about four patent applications and granted patents each week compared to IBM’s stunning 80 patents granted a week in 2008. Several questions come to mind:
- Is Google asleep at the switch? IBM obviously is focusing quite a bit of effort on invention. Google seems retrograde in innovation, or is it? Could Google patent only important innovations that require some protection?
- IBM’s patents are literally all over the technical map. Is Google more focused on search and advertising than IBM or Microsoft for that matter?
- Will Google decrease its patent application output because of the rumored reform that will be coming to the USPTO?
My own review of Google patent documents suggests that the GOOG has a strategy that relies on specific technical inventions. The focus is the strength and, of course, the weakness of Google’s approach. But when making a league table, IBM, Microsoft, and the other high output companies are the winners. Google is up for relegation if one relies only on a raw count of volume. I think quantity is not as important as quality when it comes to Google’s approach to patent documents.
Stephen Arnold, January 15, 2009
Google Cost Cutting
January 14, 2009
The GOOG is implementing its New Year resolutions to reduce costs and focus. Beyond Search has learned that Google is trimming the sails of some weak sister services; to wit: Google Video, Google Catalog Search, Google Notebook, Google Mashup Editor, and at long last the deflated Dodgeball. You can get links on ArnoldIT.com’s Overflight service here or navigate to the official Google announcements on Catalogs here, Notebook here, and Video here. Details are Googley, so the Beyond Search team is poking around for more information. “Stopping development” does not mean the services are no longer online… yet.
Stephen Arnold, January 14, 2009
Symantec Taps Autonomy
January 14, 2009
Autonomy landed another big deal, according to this Reuters’ item at TradingMarkets.com and at Forbes.com. This time Autonomy beat out a number of search and content processing vendors at the security and information management outfit, Symantec. The company owns the Norton Antivirus product, but it has been pushing into the enterprise with acquisitions and internal development. Details are sketchy, but it looks to me that Symantec will use the Autonomy system to process content stored in its enterprise back up, email, and repository systems. Information about Symantec’s full range of products and services is located here. The company’s Enterprise Vault 8.0 product is in need of a search and retrieval system. Autonomy is a player in the enterprise data management sector as well. Autonomy acquired several firms that have provided a client base and upsell opportunities. One example is Autonomy Zantaz, a company that is well known in the email and eDiscovery sector. Symantec is a $6.0 billion a year company; Autonomy is considerably smaller. However, Symantec faces significant challenges, including increased competition in the consumer sector. Enterprise data management is emerging as an increasingly important market sector. Will the Autonomy technology provide the boost that Symantec needs to maintain its growth and profit margins in these tough financial times? I think that data management requires more than search. Google, in my opinion, is one of a handful of companies with the “as is” technology necessary to handle petascale email flows, low-cost scaling, and content processing options. Symantec may have to look beyond today’s competitors and start thinking about the implications of an aggressive move by Google into this sector.
Stephen Arnold, January 14, 2009
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