Twitter Amazon, Amazon Twitter
April 8, 2009
Twitter has not been the winner of the uptime Derby at least in Kentucky. One of my readers reported Twitter issues in Israel yesterday. What is interesting is that TechFlash reported that some folks are pointing a finger at Amazon.com, the back end for Tweets. Amazon, according to TechFlash, asserted here “Don’t Blame Us for Twitter Problems.” TechFlash’s story reported:
In addition to being a user of Amazon’s S3, Twitter has a relationship with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, who is a personal investor in the microblogging service.
Twitter seems to be getting quite a bit of buzz. One hopes the Amazon Twitter or the Twitter Amazon issues can be happily resolved.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Twitter Downsides for Business
April 8, 2009
Short honk: If you want to get ammunition to cool the Twitter fever in your organization, you will want to read “Top 10 Reasons Your Company Should Not Tweet” here. I don’t feel comfortable summarizing the 10 tips, but I can mention one of them and offer a comment. Tip Number 9 is about analytics. The What’s Next Blog posting points to two services that can provide some Twitter-ific data: www.budurl.com and www.bit.ly. Useful article.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Aster Data Lands a Juicy Deal
April 8, 2009
Reuters reported here “Specific Media Chooses Aster Data Warehousing Solution.” I have been enthusiastic about the Aster Data technology since I got a demo last year. I know my newspaper readers won’t be happy, but I think the company is Googley. The news item said:
Specific Media, the advertising industry’s largest independent online advertising network, has selected the Aster Data Systems nCluster database to support its vast collection of analytics data. Specific Media attracts 143 million unique visitors a month in the U.S., and enables advertisers to target consumers throughout North America and Western Europe based on demographics, behaviors, geographic locations and/or the contextual relevance of Web sites.
More information about Aster Data is here
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009.
Google’s Plumbing
April 8, 2009
Short honk: Don’t think the GOOG has a lead in data centers? Check out this video available from Google Blogoscoped. Keep in mind the factoid from my 2005 Google study here. Google’s $1.00 of data center investment returns more than $4.00 in performance compared to high end, branded servers from big name manufacturers. Cheap, fast, and scalable. Google’s plumbing delivers throughput at a lower cost than the competitions’ data centers. What’s this mean in capex? A competitor’s data center costing $650 million would have to be four times larger to match a comparable Google data center’s performance. That’s more than $2.5 billion to reach parity. Now multiply this by 36 and you the hill the Google challengers have to climb. Don’t like my $4.00 number. Chop it in half. Still a big hill. The problem is that I have citations that suggest that under certain circumstances Google enjoys a 17X advantage. I don’t include that number in my studies because frankly no one I have met understands this type of gap. Make yourself happy. Pick a number.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
A New Direction for Yahoo: Social Networking
April 8, 2009
Okay, Yahoo is a portal. Yahoo is a Web search company. Yahoo is a tools company. Yahoo is an advertising system. Now Yahoo is on the scent of social networking. Will this new direction, reported by Alexei Oreskovic here make a difference in the company’s fortunes? You will have to read the full text story “Yahoo to Beef Up Social Networking Features” to find out. The social networking buzz has been building. I recall doing a project for a large and somewhat confused company in 2003. The purpose of the project was to dig through Yahoo’s patents and technical papers for clues about the Yahooligans’ social network capabilities. There was not much to see. Now social networking is all the rage and Yahoo is ready to jump on the bandwagon. In my opinion the move is better late than never, but late is late.
Mr. Oreskovic wrote:
Developing the social transformation on a large scale won’t be easy, particularly given Yahoo’s spotty product development track record in recent years, analysts say, though Bartz’s recent internal management reorganization should help. Yahoo still needs to figure out how to turn on the new social features without triggering an avalanche of information onto its users, many of whom already receive frequent updates about their friends’ activities on services like Facebook and Twitter and may not necessarily want another such feed.
In my opinion, the digital opportunities permit quite a few players. Then one or two emerge as black holes that suck users and money into them. The secondary and tertiary players, in effect, go nowhere. The PR machines keep grinding which helps to some extent, but the big money goes to into those black holes. Right now, Yahoo is a red dwarf. If it becomes a black hole, it may remain a small one.
If Yahoo focused on search, I think there are a number of opportunities to do a better job making certain types of real time content more accessible. Who wants another Facebook.com page to manage? Not this goose.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Googzilla to Newspaper Titans: Keep Customers Happy
April 8, 2009
I absolutely love the intellectual ultimate fighting championship underway. In one corner is Googzilla–oops–I mean Google. In the other corner is the entire newspaper industry. Seems like a fair fight to me. The GOOG is a global behemoth. The company has a killer business model that provides users with oodles of “free” information and services. Sure, a motivated customer can buy services from the Google, but the fusion power of Googzilla is its business model that sells access to its customers. Google’s brand is a hot one. Google love is rampant. Sure, there are some complainers, when it comes to search systems, the Google is the love bunny.
When I read “Google’s Schmidt To Newspaper Publishers: Don’t ‘P#&% Off’ Consumers” here, I had to honk merrily. I know the top Googlers don’t think the grousing–er, escalating hostility–is amusing. In my opinion, I don’t think most of the Googlers understand what the newspapers’ problem is. PaidContent.org’s article does a great job of capturing the facts of the top Googler’s speech. What the article underscores is the general cluelessness of both sides of this battle about one another’s business zeitgeist. As I read the story, I though of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Same deal. Google is the future. The newspaper industry is the castle artisan. Everything the Connecticut Yankee did was magic. Same problem. Pretty funny when Mark Twain tells the story. Not so humorous for the traditional publishing companies. The traditional newspaper folks are trying fix a water problem with incantations. The Yankee repairs the leak. Pragmatism wins out over shamanism every time in Mr. Twain’s world.
I found this passage from the excellent PaidContent.org write up most interesting:
But Schmidt came down harder on concerns about intellectual property and fair use: “From our perspective, we look at this pretty thoroughly and there is always a tension around fair use … I would encourage everybody, think in terms of what your reader wants. These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more.”
If I were a betting goose, I would wager that some in the newspaper industry might have interpreted Mr. Schmid’s comments a somewhat arrogant. Not much Mark Twain in Mr. Schmidt’s alleged comment. Good advice in my opinion. Probably ignored though.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Exclusive Interview with David Pogue
April 8, 2009
This year’s most exciting conference for online professionals in Philadelphia is now only four weeks away. In addition to top notch speakers like David Pogue, the networking opportunities at a J. Boye conference are excellent.
One attendee said, “What I like about the J. Boye Conferences is that they bring together industry experts and practitioners over high-quality content that seems to push participants’ professional limits and gets everyone talking. So if you want to learn – but participate as well – consider joining us in Philadelphia this May.”
Instead of product pitches, the speakers at a J. Boye conference deliver substance. For example, among the newest confirmed case studies are Abercrombie & Fitch, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Pan American Health Organization, Hanley Wood and Oxford University (UK).
For a preview of what you will experience. Here’s an exclusive with David Pogue, technology expert and New York Times’s journalist. Sign up here and secure one of the remaining seats.
Why is Google so much more used than its competitors?
Mostly because it’s better. Fast, good, idiotproof, uncluttered, ubiquitous. There’s also, at this point, a “McDonald’s factor” happening. That is, people know the experience, it’s the same everywhere they go, there’s no risk. They use Google because they’ve always used Google. It would be very hard, therefore, for any rival to gain traction.
David Pogue, one of the featured speakers at JBoye 09 in Philadelphia May 5 to 7, 2009.
When will Gmail become the preferred email solution for organizations?
August 3, 2014. But seriously, folks. Nobody can predict the future of technology. Also, I’m sure plenty of organizations use it already, and it’s only picking up steam. Gmail is becoming truly amazing.
Will Google buy Twitter – and what will it mean if they do?
I don’t know if they’ll buy it; nobody does. It would probably mean very little except a guaranteed survival for Twitter, perhaps with enhancements along the way. That’s been Google’s pattern (for example, when it bought GrandCentral.)
Why is it so hard for organizations to get a grip on user experience design?
The problems include lack of expertise, limited budget (there’s an incentive to do things cheaply rather than properly), and lack of vision. In other words, anything done by committee generally winds up less elegant than something done by a single, focused person who knows what he’s doing.
Why are you speaking at a Philadelphia web conference organized by a Denmark-based company?
Because they obviously have excellent taste. 🙂
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Googler to Dust AOL with Enchanted Sparkles
April 8, 2009
Quite a day for happy honking from this addled goose. What a gem was “Tim Armstrong Starts at AOL–His Entire 100-Day-Countdown-To-Magic Memo!” by Kara Swisher here. You must read this article. For me the compelling passage was:
According to Armstrong, he is poised to “bring back the magic of AOL.”
To my recollection, AOL’s magic was direct mail carpet bombing, hot chat rooms, and Byzantine cancellation hoops for AOL users who wanted to quit. In my opinion, the best part of AOL is its Relegence.com based information service. The other parts are not too helpful. With regards to magic, I recalled
“The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.” Source here.
This goose thinks that goose is cooked.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Associated Press: Tech Media Snaps Back
April 7, 2009
I enjoyed Larry Dignan’s “AP Eyes News Aggregators; Risks Exposing Its Lack of Value Add” here. The article made a good point: “Be careful what you wish for AP.” I don’t think the Associated Press thinks too much about folks who write Web logs. I agree with Mr. Dignan’s assertion that the AP may not deliver the value add that its owners perceive it does. The examples of the non news that the AP distributes tickled my funny bone. But I know the AP senior managers know quite well the content that flows to its owners and licensees.
What Mr. Dignan did not point out (and to be fair most of the articles I scanned did not point out either) is this item. The high value part of the AP is its coverage of state capitals. Here in the Bluegrass State, the AP files stories about the state government’s activities. Multiply this by 50, and you have the real money maker for the Associated Press. The bulk of the info flowing “down the wire” is recycled information. Prior to the advent, companies as diverse as Halliburton’s Nuclear Utility Services to the Bureau of National Affairs recycled government information and packaged it for resale. The revenue streams were solid because who wanted the hassle of aggregating memos from the Department of Energy or the latest from the Railway Retirement Board. The AP’s money maker is its coverage of the state capital scene. Individual papers have long relied on the AP’s coverage of state news because it was cheaper than putting expensive staff in a state bureau.
My view is that this hassle could be resolved pretty quickly if one of the younger, more energetic readers of this Web log would do a mash up of the state and major city information, update it in near real time, and slap Google AdSense on the service. Deprived of its advantage in this information channel, the AP would be put on notice that reasonable behavior is highly desirable.
If the coding is not comfy for some former journalists, why not form an informal group via a social network and cover the state news via a pool. The bylined stories would open doors for freelance jobs and maybe come political strategy / analysis work. I might even look at a state tech news feed so I could keep track of what Kentucky spends for technology services provided by Unisys.
Either approach sends a much clearer message about the power of the “digital Gutenberg” than the interesting but anecdotal chatter about a service firm dependent on the dead tree crowd for survival. But I am an addled goose. What do I know? Nothing. Just my opinion. Honk.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
A Google Wizard Profile
April 7, 2009
Short honk: You can find an interesting profile of a young Googler here. The article creates a legend for Ori Allon. “Google’s Israeli Whiz Kid” reminds the world that Google finds smart folks and creates an environment in which their ideas have impact. Next Google may issue wizard cards as a collectible.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
