Google Offers a Digital Olive Branch July 1
July 1, 2009
In my Google: The Digital Gutenberg, I describe an invention disclosed in a Google patent document for a “partner” to use Google like an integrated motion picture studio. The invention, in effect, allows a partner to create content, post it, control access to the content, run an ad campaign using Google tools, and essential operate like those fun loving moguls Sammy (I am a lamb) Goldwyn and Louis (I am a cupcake) Mayer. Google, according to Reuters, is promoting this “run your own business” service to newspapers. You can read Joseph Tartakoff’s “Google Wants Newspaper to Post Their Videos to YouTube” to get the Thomson Reuters’ slant on this story. For me, the most intriguing comment was:
That [the new offer from Google] contrasts with Google News, where publishers do not get a cut of any of the revenue from the ads that are placed around their headlines. Still, it’s unlikely that many publishers will want to abandon other video platforms, like Brightcove, which also allow them to sell their own ads against their video content—and to link up with several ad networks. Google had already begun to slowly integrate YouTube news videos with Google News last month, when it added videos for the first time to Google News, and the new push should further that. For Google, it’s also a free way to add more professional content to YouTube, and thus attract more premium advertisers.
Will newspapers grab the digital olive branch? Good question. I think that some publishers may do the math and conclude that Google has tipped the odds in favor of the house. I think that’s a wrong way to look at the Google offer, but that’s why I am a fat, addled goose, paddling in the pond with mine drainage run off. I don’t sit in an office tower with air conditioning cooling my pin feathers.
Stephen Arnold, July 1, 2009
XyEnterprise Goes for $15 Million
July 1, 2009
Publishing companies relied on specialized, expensive, and very exotic systems to make magazines, books, technical manuals, and other serious types of documents. Then along came Word—unstable, unable to number, and miserable at layout. Then along came long document software for the desktop computer. Within the last five years, the number of low cost, free, subscription, host, and open source publishing systems have flooded into the Beyond Search computer lab in a damp hollow in Kentucky. The addled goose relies on the aging Framemaker program and when he has sufficiently low blood pressure the whizzy Adobe InDesign.
Life became tough for the specialized high end developers of bespoke publishing systems. These software systems cost six figures or more and could create a footnote that could occupy most a book page. Today’s software decides where to put the footnote and how long it may be, thank you. Most folks don’t get too bogged down in footnotes because the systems available in Word and InDesign can be quite challenging to manage.
Trading Markets reported that XyEnterprise is now part of a global integration company. The name of the company is now SDL XySoft. What’s interesting to me is that venerable company changed hands for $15 million. “SDL Acquires XyEnterprise for $14.7 Million” reported:
The acquisition is being funded from SDL’s existing cash resources. A global business, XyEnterprise has a turnover of $9.9 million.
I think that other content management companies will face a similar bargain basement sale price or simply fold up their tent and move to another business sector. Why? Check out free content management systems in Coding Cow. Alternatively, look at SquareSpace.com. The writing is on the wall in our office in Harrod’s Creek. You can follow SDL XySoft on Twitter, which will definitely generate some new sales here in Kentucky.
Stephen Arnold, July 1, 2009
Oracle Salesforce Rumor: A Summer Thriller
July 1, 2009
I heard chatter at the Gilbane conference in San Francisco on June 4, 2009. I did not know the slick, 20 something who was explaining over his Pop Tart that Oracle was interested in Salesforce.com. Now the story “pops” into my feed reader with a Reuters’ logo, a byline for Jim Finkle, and the rumor elevated to the status of mainstream media “story”. You can try to locate the Reuters’ story “Sales Force CEO Downplays Chatter of Sale to Oracle” but I have had some 404s of late. These Reuters’ stories are too valuable to be left where my feed reader first pointed. Go figure. Anyway, Mr. Finkle wrote:
Salesforce.com Inc Chief Executive Marc Benioff downplayed persistent speculation that bigger rival Oracle Corp may buy his Web-based software company. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was an early investor and one-time board member in San Francisco-based Salesforce but Benioff told Reuters on Monday [June 29, 2009]: “If he wanted to buy it, he would have.”
A couple of thoughts flapped through the addled goose’s tiny brain:
- Google has been a cheerleader for Salesforce.com for quite a while. Google, however, has not made overt moves to acquire Salesforce.com. If Oracle shows interest, might that urge Googzilla to snap up Salesforce.com along with its real sales team and its customers.
- Despite Mr. Ellison’s investment in Salesforce.com, I have sensed some cattiness about Salesforce.com’s success with its off premises, cloud based service. Even though Oracle beats at the heart of the Salesforce.com system, the model challenges Oracle’s on premises approach. A purchase might lead to some sudden changes in Salesforce.com. I think of this management approach as oncology management.
- With a great deal of cash slopping around in some investment firms’ wallets, if Salesforce.com is in play, there may be some left field buyers in the game.
Nothing like a buy out rumor to add zest to the summer financial drama. My hunch is that this thriller may have a touch of Hollywood, however. Whatever happens, I think Google benefits. That company’s search and glue code makes contributions to both Oracle and Salesforce.com. Neither company has a search system that rises above unsalted popcorn. Google may end up a winner by providing search and other services no matter how the script unfolds.
Stephen Arnold, July 1, 2009
Brainware Gets Oracle Certification
July 1, 2009
I found the news story on the Forbes.com site interesting. (I am again puzzled about who wrote what on Forbes.com, so the provenance of this “story” may be Brainware’s ever alert PR department.) Assume that it is 100 percent beef. The headline offers only the tip of an implication iceberg: “Brainware Distiller Receives Latest oracle E Business Suite Certification”. Brainware is a vendor of search and content processing systems. The firm has an end-to-end capability; that is, a licensee can scan, convert to text, and then index with the Brainware trigram technology the content. For the industrious, Brainware provides a method to hook a taxonomy or other controlled term list into the system. What’s remarkable about this announcement is that Brainware is following in the footsteps of Autonomy, the original ace holder in Internet marketing. Here’s why:
- Oracle allows third parties to develop for its platform. This type of deal is usually additive. The Brainware approach allows somewhat deeper hooks into the cherished realm of Ellison land.
- Oracle is already making it tough to find information about SES10g. Ultra Search seems to be a popular moniker now, but Brainware is at its core a search system with an unusual technology. I wonder if this deal is a prelude Oracle’s finally making an effort to get search and content processing technology that is affordable, integrates with Oracle stuff, and works reasonably well.
- Brainware, already a player in legal document publishing, has found a way to put its search nose into a number of potentially lucrative Oracle customers’ cook outs. Other search vendors may want to rethink their Oracle strategies.
I am eager to see how this plays out with the Oracle sales machine.
Stephen Arnold, July 1, 2009
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
