Google and Its PR Push
October 10, 2009
Wow, the Web logs have recycled the Sergey Brin article “A Library to Last Forever”. If you want a run down of the news stories about this opinion piece, navigate to Techmeme, Megite, or Google News and have a click fest. I found the information in the article interesting, but less interesting than the fact that Google is getting into the public relations amusement park. The idea is to get the “message” out and fascinate those in the amusement park with the sounds, lights, and manufactured excitement therein.
Google Books, although important, is one project. The conversation about Google Books is important, and I am surprised that it has taken 11 years for intelligent people to connect the dots about Google. In my opinion, Google Books as a project will continue. The only unanswered questions are essentially details.
Google Books is not Google. Google is an application platform within a new type of organization. Interpreting Google with methods derived from traditional businesses both product and service oriented is going to create more Google Books-type situations.
Let me give you one example of the flexibility of the Google construct. Perhaps Google’s most important technical innovation is essentially unknown outside of a small number of specialists. That innovation has the potential to transform the way information access is performed in any use case. Compared to this innovation, Google Books is a modest undertaking that informs the Google knowledge base and permits some secondary and derivative products to be generated.
The discussion about Google Books is worthwhile but it is similar to a group of experts examining the tail of an elephant and not looking at the entire creature. The perspective is important. Understanding Google’s achievements and capabilities requires perspective. That’s what’s missing in the analyses of Google’s PR push.
PR is not always congruent with reality in my opinion. A Euclidean triangle might not “look” like a triangle in a non Euclidean space. The flood of write ups about Google Books are Euclidean, just like the solutions in sophomore high school geometry class. The proper method may be non Euclidean. If this makes no sense, enjoy the Google PR blitz. If it does make sense, you can interpret the messages within the Google PR blitz.
Stephen Arnold, October 10, 2009
Yahoo in a Search Tizzy
October 10, 2009
I found the Cnet article “Yahoo Ponders the Meaning of Search” important for two reasons. First, the screen shot in the article sure looked like Google’s search results page design. With all the design craziness of the Yahoo home page and the weird “keep on clicking” approach to seeing one’s email in box, I found the similarity sending me a loud signal: “See, we can be just like Google.” Well, maybe in design but not much else in my opinion. Second, the discussion of the Yahoo situation was a grim reminder that the search problems at Yahoo are part of a larger, more complex management challenge. Yahoo is sliding down a snow covered hill on a garbage bag. The ride may be fun but it is going to be hard to control, risky, and painful.
Stephen Arnold, October 10, 2009
Reading Microsoft Style: The Book on a Personal Computer
October 10, 2009
Short honk: When I spotted the title “Ballmer: Books Should Be Read the Way They Were Meant to Be — on a PC”, I assumed this was an Onion spoof. A closer inspection revealed that the article was serious. I thought books were meant to be read they way they have been for several hundred years: ink on paper. Nope. Here is the quote that surprised me:
“We have a device for reading. It’s the most popular device in the world. It’s the PC,” Ballmer said.
I wonder what the device for search is.
Stephen Arnold, October 10, 2009
Codd Lovers Rejoice: IBM Cracks DB2 Scaling
October 10, 2009
Now about the cost. Ooops. Cost. Not part of the solution in my opinion. You can get the cheerleading in “IBM Calls New DB2 Grid Feature an Oracle ‘Exadata-Killer‘”. For me the key passage was:
IBM today unveiled a new clustering feature that it says will help its flagship DB2 database trump Oracle Corp.’s rival product on scalability, speed and price. According to IBM, the new pureScale feature will enable companies to “scale out” their DB2 clusters without sacrificing performance the way Oracle’s eight-year-old Real Application Clusters (RAC) technology does.
My view is that these “throw iron at the problem” fixes are like adding straws to the bundle on the camel’s back. At some point, the Codd world with collapse. When this happens, will Google be ready with a hybrid solution; that is, some in the cloud and other bits on the client’s premises? My research suggests, “Quite likely.”
Stephen Arnold, October 10, 2009
Lynki: A New Site Finder with Social Functions
October 9, 2009
I visited Washington, DC to test my resolve on the city’s subway system and find out if my BlackBerry would find a wireless connection in my favorite Starbuck’s. In one of my meetings on October 7, 2009, I learned about Lynki.com. The site was described as a way to find out out new Web sites. I looked at the site and did some casual searches of the user-generated content. One feature that struck me was a method for those suggesting sites to add a comment. Registered users are able to comment on sites as well. Suggested sites are plugged into categories. I find that pinpointing recently launched Web sites is time consuming.
The company flagged three new features:
- A software component called the Lynki Conversations Plug-in for Firefox. The software allows a user to easily add and Tweet comments
- A bookmark function that permits quick additions of a site to to Lynki.com.
- A recommendation feature that allows a registered user sees sites suggested via the Lynki.com recommendation algorithm.
- The system includes a mood browser. The idea is that Lynki.com displays sites based on the user’s mood.
Lynki.com enters a market sector in which some services like Delicious.com and StumbleUpon.com have ingrained themselves into some users’ routine. I want to give the site a more thorough shake down. I have not yet downloaded and installed the Lynki.com toolbar. I found the StumbleUpon.com toolbar of old inappropriate for my work pattern. I have tested a number of user generated listing services. If one gets traction, a new site can attract solid online traffic. Predicting which new service will grab the brass ring is difficult. We will continue to test drive the service.
Stephen Arnold, October 9, 2009
Microsoft: Meshing the Online Pieces
October 9, 2009
Microsoft has been working to brief enterprises that matter and some partners about the next generation of Microsoft technology. I have not attended these briefings. Indirect comments continue to reach me. I did locate an alleged screen shot depicting the next generation interface of one of these enterprise systems. Since I am uncertain about the accuracy of the source, I examined it with interest. I found the interface in step with the revamped interfaces from a number of vendors in the US and Europe. As I poked around for more information about these next generation systems, I enjoyed the article “When Will Microsoft’s Live Mesh Matter?” The title begged a question about the significance of Live Mesh, and I turned to the details of the write up to answer this question. I am a bit fuzzy on what Live Mesh is. The article reminded me that Live Mesh was a “synchronization / backup software”. For me, one of the most interesting passage in the article was:
Live Mesh is more plumbing/infrastructure than something Microsoft plans to offer as a new product or service directly to consumers.
However, for me, the heart of the write up was this concluding statement:
But when Mesh will actually figure in Microsoft’s products/services line-up is anyone’s guess at this point.
With a November professional Microsoft developers’ conference approaching in November 2009 and previews underway now, I am curious about how firm the concrete foundations of these next generation services are. The cost and risk of shifting to new versions of widely used technology can be daunting in today’s business climate. In the last two days, I have had clients make this point in meetings about technology investments.
Stephen Arnold, October 9, 2009
History of Social Media
October 9, 2009
I find the social media “revolution” a combination of old and new. The guts of the technology have been exposed for years. Some of the newest applications take advantage of mash up methods and bandwidth to create quite interesting online services. In my next Information World Review column I write about an innovation from Georgia Tech. The system displays real time data from devices such as traffic cameras. Writing the column forced me to do a quick review of the history of social media. I located a useful article that some readers may want to read. “Major Advances in Social Networking” provides a helpful summary of important milestones in this sector of content creation and processing. I found the selection of examples and the categories useful; for example, Lifestreaming. I did not agree with everything in the article, but I found it helpful in looking at the sweep of the social media innovation machinery.
Stephen Arnold, October 9, 2009
Information Technology Spending Reconsidered
October 9, 2009
Enterprise search, content processing, and content transformation are expensive for some organizations. I was quite interested in the ZDNet UK article “Shadow Minister Urges ‘Rethink’ of IT Spending”. Close monitoring of costs is not new. What struck me as novel was this statement in the write up:
He [a UK government official] called for a “fundamental rethink” and called for changes including fewer mega-projects and a rigid insistence on open standards and interoperability.
If this viewpoint gets traction, will the government contracting system itself come under scrutiny? What about certain government contractors whose work has not met with wide user satisfaction in the past or generated significant cost savings?
A shake up in how the UK government does information technology could signal a shift that can trigger significant industry disruptions. Similar efforts have captured headlines but have not resulted in substantive changes in government information technology practices in my opinion. Perhaps this time change will be more significant? The UK’s struggles with information technology are not unlike those experienced by other organizations. In fact, information technology is an increasingly significant challenge for accountants, managers, and users. Each month, information technology throws up higher hurdles. Maybe the hurdles will be knocked over because to continue on the present path seems to exacerbate cost and usability problems. A change may be necessary because funds to maintain the status quo may no longer be available. The financial situation, not the resolve of information technology mangers, may force different approaches. Who benefits?
Stephen Arnold, October 9, 2009
Yahoo May Hold Online Properties Garage Sale
October 8, 2009
Short honk: A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to Business Insider’s run down of Yahoo properties that are for sale. The information is presented in a series of pages in an article called “Yahoo: What’s For Sale, What’s Not, And What Could Be”. I have not been paying close attention to Yahoo because the deal with Microsoft leaves me with quite a few questions. I clicked through the links and noticed that one of the properties in the list was Yahoo Games. Another that caught my attention was Delicious, also on the Business Insider list. Assume that Yahoo does sell these online properties. The company will generate some cash. My view is that by streamlining itself, the firm may benefit more by reducing some information technology costs. Business Insider’s list is thought provoking in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, October 9, 2009
Vivisimo Issues Point Upgrade
October 8, 2009
Vivisimo, http://www.vivismo.com, a company that works with email archiving, eDiscovery, and information management solutions, just released a revved-up version of the Velocity Enterprise Search Platform, which builds search-centric programs. The platform focuses on extensibility, scalability and performance; Vivisimo is using it to accelerate into OEM and reseller markets. Those programs are designed to add value to existing applications and develop new solutions for sorting information assets, for example, it supports searching 1 billion emails on a single server. Vivisimo also says “With Velocity 7.5, new traceable accuracy metrics can accurately prove and defend that all data has been crawled and identify any documents that were not indexed due to corrupt file types.” This can be a big plus for companies dealing with growing regulation. A happy quack for Vivisimo (tagline: “Search Done Right!”). Any progress that can help enterprise business advance search and make sense of unstructured data is a good thing.
Jessica Bratcher, October 8, 2009
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