Google Twitter Combo Search
April 7, 2009
Short honk: Search Engine Journal has a good write up by Ann Smarty here. ” How to Combine Google Search with Twitter Search” provides a helpful summary of a method to create a blended results list. Read it, save it, use it.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Boost Your Google Trust Score
April 7, 2009
If you thought PageRank was the path to the top of a results list, you are wrong. Google generates a trust score. You can learn about it by reading ChrisG’s “How to Grow Your Google Authority” here. The trust score is a big deal for the GOOG, and I am delighted that a useful discussion has become available. The idea is that some individuals’ comments have more clout than others. For me, the key point in the write up was:
Authority in general means that people trust you to supply expert insight. The good news is that authorities trusted by human beings are also trusted by Google.
A useful write up.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Consumer Watchdog Chasing Google
April 7, 2009
I just received a news release with the title “Consumer Group Calls on Justice Department to Intervene In Google Book Settlement; “Orphan Works” provision and “Most Favored Nation” Clause Raise Antitrust Concerns”. The news release points to a letter here that raises concerns about the Google deal with The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. I’m no lawyer, but this is one more indication of growing interest in the GOOG. My question: Isn’t this concern a bit like the farmer who complains that his barn burned, his horses ran off, and a real estate developer built a Costco on the vacant lot? The GOOG has been chugging along for a decade and not doing much different year to year. Now folks realize that Google is more than search and want to change reality. My thought: find a way to surf on Google and live with the 21st century version of Ma Bell. Google is not a cause. Google is a manifestation of a change that has already taken place.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Associated Press: Content Pit Bull
April 7, 2009
As an addled goose, I survived a couple of tough jobs in publishing. I worked at the Courier Journal & Louisville Times Co. when Barry Bingham Jr. was the boss. He made quite an impression on me. When he interviewed me, I asked him what he wanted from his senior mangers. He answered with one word, “Quality.” When I asked for clarification, to the best of my recollection he said:
We have a number of businesses. Some make money. Some make less money. The one thing each has in common is that the people running these businesses know that quality comes first. The money follows.
Bill Ziff–the genius behind three publishing empires (yachts, automobiles, computers)–expected his senior managers to make decisions and produce products that customers wanted. The quality was judged by the customer. As different as these two publishing titans were, the focus was on quality, not money.
Newspapers are in a bind. The Courier Journal, prior to its purchase by Gannett in June 1986, was one of the leaders in electronic information. That was 23 years ago. How did Barry Bingham Jr. know to push into electronic information? He never told me. He just wanted to use technology in the way his father had pioneered in television. Why did Bill Ziff support electronic database companies (Information Access) and online services (ZD on CompuServe). His team listened to customers.
Now we come to the Associated Press in this Yahoo News item: “AP To Sue Web Sites That Use Content Improperly” here. I don’t need to quote from this story. You can read it and make your own decision whether litigation is the best path to generating revenue. Customers don’t play much part in a lawsuit.
As traditional media companies slash jobs, more people capable of producing content will be cut loose. At some point, the quality and quantity of solid reporting and analysis will become sufficiently large to cause a collapse in some traditional media companies. The AP, in my opinion, may be affected by this event.
I don’t think the present problems in publishing can be resolved by lawyers. I think that taking a look at the methods of the Barry Binghams and the Bill Ziffs might provide some useful ideas for making money without the hassle and costs of litigation.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Newspapers Are Goners: Lawyers Will Not Save the Day
April 7, 2009
The patricians at the big name media companies are busy dissing the GOOG. I don’t think Googzilla has much to do with the sorry state of newspaper publishing. Check out Eric Savitz’ One Classified Ad Web Site to Rule Them All” here. Note: Barron’s is a dead tree outfit owned by News Corp., an enterprise that finds little room in its heart for Google love. Mr. Savitz reported that Craigslist.org is a de facto classified ad monopoly. As he stated the matter:
According to new data from Hitwise, traffic to online classified advertising sites increased 84% in February from a year ago. The sector has seen positive growth in all but one month over the last three years. And while hardly the only player in the game, the single biggest beneficiary of the trend is Craigslist. According to Hitwise, of the top 100 classified ad Web sites, all but 3 were localized versions of Craigslist.
Mr. Savitz’ employer may want to put the evil on the owners of Craigslist.org. The GOOG is innocent when it comes to sucking classified ad revenue sweets from the dying trees supporting the newspaper industry. Keep in mind that if the dead tree patricians have children under the age of 24, the progeny are users of Craigslist.org. How else does one find an apartment in Alphabet City? Newspaper killers are using the vertical search provided by Craigslist.org. Even the Googlers use Craigslist.org from what I hear.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Google Local Search: Bad News for Yellow Pages
April 7, 2009
I loathe clumsy printed telephone directories. The information is stale, and I probably consult my Yellow Pages twice, maybe three times a year. When I want a phone number or I need to find a vendor, I look in Google’s directories. Search Engine Journal’s Arnold Zafra wrote “Google Expands Local Search here.” When I read the headline, I thought, “Good.” He provides a summary of an item that appeared earlier today on the ArnoldIT.com Overflight service here, but I don’t do news in this Web log. I point to useful write ups and offer observations. The run down of new features is clear, better than Google’s own happy face style of writing in my opinion. The big news is that Google uses discerned context to refine the search results. Access the local search here. I know it looks like Google Maps but run a query with a zip code to get started here.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Doomed Idea, Charge Everyone for Content
April 6, 2009
You can find quite a few posts in this Web log’s archive about making money online. Believe it or not, there are some things that don’t work too well. Business moguls don’t read this Web log, but these folks have confidence in their business acumen. A recent example is Rupert Murdoch’s plan to charge for newspaper content. “Rupert Murdoch Calls for Newspapers to Charge for Website Access” here provides some insight into how confident business managers assume that business models that worked in the pre digital world will work in today’s digital ecosystem.
For me, the most interesting comment in the article was:
Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp, has said that people reading the websites of newspapers should be paying. According to Murdoch, the ad revenues that many publishers expect to offset the costs of its digital operations will not cover their costs.
The stridency of these traditional media companies’ executives is amusing. Here in Harrod’s Creek, we watch the mine drainage seep into the pond. We splash in the warm, murky water and listen to the muted drone of I-71. The goslings and I know that the dead tree crowd are likely to drown in a sea of red ink. Maybe these folks should chill, kick back and join us in rural Kentucky? The goslings and I can explain how online revenue can flow and demo some interesting new ways to meet users information needs. On the other hand, it may be too late.
Stephen Arnold, April 7, 2009
Google Health: Two New Deals
April 6, 2009
Googzilla has revealed some new tie ups in its Google Health initiative. At my lecture a couple of weeks ago in Houston, a big medical center with a city wrapped around it, there was quite a bit of interest in electronic medical records. The real issue, however, was consistency. I thought privacy and security were the cat’s pajamas. I was wrong. The medical types kept circling around the issue of data management, data transformation, and moving bits from Point A to Point B with the people at Point B able to use the information.
Google announced two interesting tie ups. The first is a partnership with CVS, a retail chain. You can get the details here. The Reuters’ story provides a few details. But the big point to me was that the GOOG is thinking retail and retail pharmacies.
The second tie up is with the giant Medco Health Solutions Inc. outfit. You can read this Reuters’ story here. Same deal: some facts but not much on the way the tie up will affect customers. The news story asserts that Google has more than 100 million people who can get access to prescription data. For me, the point is that the GOOG is thinking consumers via a partnership.
Microsoft thinks the same types of thoughts for HealthVault. The appearance of the two stories is either a coincidence or part of a health push. With the Obama Administration’s support of electronic medical records, the Google may be shifting gears. If so, the company will accelerate its surround and seep strategy in an effort to capture the market sector.
Can Google do this? Right now I think it is a wide open sector. Google’s chances are neither better nor worse than the other companies fighting for a handhold.
Stephen Arnold, April 6, 2009
Android: Surround and Seep
April 6, 2009
I have been following the discussion of Google and its “operating system” since 2002.
My newsreader this fine Monday, April 6, 2009, is chock full of discussions about Google on notebooks, Google on mobile devices, and Google in personal computers. I liked the flurry of comments about the New York Times’s revelation that T-Mobile was going to use Google for its home devices. You can read that bit of news here. Let’s see that means that the GOOG is supporting its own crowd of cronies, Apple’s iPhone, and now T-Mobile. Looks like the Google is getting some traction in the mobile space. Quite a revelation.
Then there is the flurry of write ups about Hewlett Packard’s thinking about Android for its netbooks. The CNet write up is a pretty good one on this topic, You can read Marguerite Reardon’s “HP Considers Google Android for Netbooks” here. Hmm. I wonder if anyone realizes that when installing Chrome, the GOOG has its operating hooks ready for whatever the user wants to do?
In my research for my Google studies, I have quite a bit of contradictory information in my files. On one side of the fence are the Googlers who insist that the company does not have an operating system. The company’s spokespeople are correct. Google has Linux, wrappers, and code shims. The software in use at Google is dynamic and it is not suited for installation by my father on his home computer. On the other hand, Google has figured out how to make Python, JavaScript, and other languages jump through digital hoops. With these software components of which I cannot keep track, Google:
- Delivers its virtual machine technology via containers
- Enables offline access to Gmail and soon other Google Apps
- Creates a digital cocoon in which it can perform such magic as deliver ads regardless of where the user goes or what device he/she uses.
Is this an operating system? It depends. If you are Microsoft, Google’s approach sure seems to be headed that direction. If you are a Googler, this collection of features is little more than extensions of the Google “as is” computing environment–what I call the real Googleplex of one million servers, fancy Dan engineering, and proprietary system sand methods galore.
The point that most of the pundits, mavens, gurus, and Google watchers overlook is the broader strategy the GOOG is using. I dug into this approach in detail in my Google Version 2.0, a deep dive into some of Google’s more current innovations. You can read about that study here. Check out the subtitle too.
In a nutshell, Google’s strategy is to use the Googleplex of its “as is” infrastructure as the wrapper. The Android software to the ill fated Web Accelerator just tap into the mothership. What happens is that Google surrounds the users and competitors and allows its services and features to seep into crack in the existing market sectors. Surround and seep. Quite different from other competitors’ strategies in my opinion.
You can read more about how this works in my forthcoming Google: A Digital Gutenberg study due out later this month. More information about that study is here.
US Government Gets Aggregation Fever
April 6, 2009
Navigate to http://data.gov. You will see the message that revealed the site goes live sometime in May 2009. Word is that citizens will have a one-stop shop for data. What data? I am not certain. I hope it includes the content that does not find its way into either www.usa.gov, Yahoo’s index limited to the Dot Gov extension, or Google’s Uncle Sam service here.
Stephen Arnold, April 6, 2009
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