The End of Regulation
December 23, 2009
Forbes, which once was a capitalist tool until it suffered a loss in ad pages and fired its library manager, has announced the end of regulation. If the assertion is accurate, will executives carry pistols to meetings? When an idea is challenged, will shots be fired?
The article was “Why Regulation Is Irrelevant”. You will want to read it to make sure the addled goose is not filtering the essence incorrectly. Who wants to read about the end of regulation when sipping a filtered Starbuck’s beverage? These concoctions share more similarities than I first imagined.
For me, the key point of the write up (besides the big ads next to the story) is expressed in this comment:
The problem is that government mediation of market battles almost always produces results that are irrelevant by the time they are implemented. There are three speeds in government regulation: slow, slower and slowest.
To me, fast moving companies just keep moving, sort of like sharks or other predators in popular folklore I suppose.
The key point in the write up was this statement at the end of the article:
What changed that market wasn’t so much government intervention as the creation of cell phones and Internet-based communication.
My hunch is that certain companies will move quickly and rely on disruption to create opportunities. Any suggestions for companies that match this strategic approach?
Stephen E. Arnold, December 23, 2009
A freebie. With the US Federal government shut down, I will disclose the freebie-ness to the Federal Highway authority, an outfit which had an incorrect sign on the GW Parkway when I drove home from my office in Crystal City for many years. Great outfit.
Search Lemma Two
December 23, 2009
Another lemma for the search and content processing crowd:
Search generally delivers data. Search may deliver information. Search never delivers knowledge.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 22, 2009
A freebie. Who’s on first today? Oh, yes, I must report this to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Medical online information is an excellent way to test this lemma.
Preliminary List of Beyond Search Evaluated Social Search Systems
December 23, 2009
The goslings and I had some disagreements about what to include and what to exclude. If you read my column in Incisive Media’s Information World Review, I have mentioned many of these systems. In London earlier this month a person asked me to run a table of the social search systems. I anticipate that a large number of azure chip consultants, poobahs, satraps, and SEO mavens will have a field day recycling these links. The addled goose is too old and too disinterested to honk much about short cuts.
As with our list of European enterprise search vendors, we will add to this list over time. I will not include my ratings for each system in this list. I have not decided about using my goose ratings as part of the Overflight service or one of the listings on my archive Web site. If you don’t agree with a site’s inclusion or if you have a site to suggest, use the comments section of the Web log. There will be some weird breaks and spacing issues. WordPress often baffles me with its handling of table code. If the breaks annoy you, the addled goose says, “Create your own list.” Honk.
Why Journalists Are Mesmerized by Google
December 22, 2009
Short honk: Ever wonder why journalists and even some visitors are unable to see the reality of Google? Navigate to “Pictures from Inside the Offices of Google.” Looks like fun. Free food. Games. Places to sit. Look blow the surface of the yogurt raisins perhaps? Think any one sleeps in those fun looking pods after working 20 straight hours?
Stephen E. Arnold, December 21, 2009
Oyez, oyez, a freebie. I wish to report this sad state of affairs to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Remember you will be accountable if you misunderstand the Google.
Search Lemma One
December 22, 2009
Editor’s note: A new, brief series makes a statement about search and content processing. The idea is to make clear that what people think they know about search may be wide of the mark. I have started gathering these, and I am not sure if I will be able to go beyond the five I have in hand.
Search makes evident that we cannot find
what we know we know is there.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 22, 2009
Freebie. Happy New Year or whatever you celebrate. Oh, I have to report that I was not paid for this lemma. Today, the oversight authority is National Endowment for the Humanities, an entity involved in lemmas and dilemmas.
VSAT Is Back
December 22, 2009
The Houston Chronicle reported a story that is mostly a news release pick up. I noticed this because it mentions the VSAT broadband technology. If this does not rev your engine, you can get some basic information of the very small aperture terminal technology by reading the Wikipedia entry for “Very Small Aperture Terminal”. You may find the Crystal Communications write up “About VSAT” helpful as well. VSAT is one of those technologies that made certain government agencies drool years ago. An outfit called Equatorial Communications was / is / shall be the cat’s pajamas.
“KVH’s Mini-VSAT Broadband Service Officially Approved by US Government” includes several comments I found interesting:
- “The system enables the highest data rate, widest global coverage, and lowest service cost of any maritime satellite communications service.”
- [The VSAT technology] “brings the economic and operational benefits of VSAT service to large new markets of commercial and leisure vessels.”
- “Our network spreads the signal over a wider bandwidth, thereby reducing interference issues, supporting multiple simultaneous users, allowing us to offer an antenna 75% lighter and 85% smaller by volume, and reducing costs as we use the same transponder for inbound and outbound signals.”
This may be important to certain organizations in the online information business. I won’t connect the dots, but there are some quite interesting Google inventions in the wireless sector.
Stephen E. Anrold, December 22, 2009
A freebie. No one paid me to write about the information in the Houston Chronicle’s recycled news section. The agency monitoring blog posts with regard to the recycling is the Environmental Protection Agency. I herewith report another free post.
Enterprise Search Vendor Resolutions for 2010
December 22, 2009
The addled goose has compiled a list of the New Year’s resolutions–imaginary, of course–for vendors of enterprise search and content processing systems.
Image source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/hell%20freezes%20over/FlintConservative/hell_freezes_over.jpg
The speaker is an imaginary vendor of information retrieval systems. The hypothetical person is speaking in the first person at lunch with three people in attendance, a Rabbi, an Mullah, and a Catholic bishop. Each is listening intently. Each casts a wary eye on the sky above as the hypothetical search vendor speaks these words:
- I will not prevaricate about my company’s software.
- I will provide names of customers, happy and sad, when asked for references.
- I will provide customer support via a human who knows the software.
- When I am asked a question to which I don’t know the answer, I will say “I don’t know”.
- When I tell a customer “I will get back to you”, I will get back to that person.
- When I am asked about the firm’s financial health, I will provide accurate information.
- When asked if a new feature works, I will tell the truth.
- When replying to a request for a quotation, I will provide accurate, complete financial detail.
- When asked about system performance, I will explain that hardware and engineering will be needed to make the system keep up with growth in content and usage.
- When I am asked if the system is “just like Google’s”, I will provide an accurate point by point differentiation.
- When I am asked how the system differs from any other system, I will provide a table that identifies the specific points of difference, if any.
- I will not buy customers via price cutting.
- I will not denigrate open source software without offering verifiable supporting documentation.
Clouds gathered. Thunder rumbled. Lightning flashed. The lunch group dispersed, each going his separate way.
Credula vitam spes fovet et melius cras fore semper dicit.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 21, 2009
I wish to report to the Arctic Research Commission that I was not paid to write this hypothetical-stuffed item. When vendors embrace these resolutions, Hell will freeze over.
Google Thinks Like a Small Company
December 22, 2009
I like irony. Read “Interview with Google’s Alan Eustace” in Forbes. I don’t suppose you know Dr. Eustace. He is like most Google wizards, low profile.
First, he rates a picture on Google’s “Execs.html” page. He has participated in a Google fireside chat with Dave Girouard. He has a Wikipedia reference. Here’s what Google officially says about Dr.Eustace:
Alan Eustace is one of Google’s senior vice presidents of engineering. He joined Google in the summer of 2002. Prior to Google, Alan spent 15 years at Digital/Compaq/HP’s Western Research Laboratory where he worked on a variety of chip design and architecture projects, including the MicroTitan Floating Point unit, BIPS – the fastest microprocessor of its era. Alan also worked with Amitabh Srivastava on ATOM, a binary code instrumentation system that forms the basis for a wide variety of program analysis and computer architecture analysis tools. These tools had a profound influence on the design of the EV5, EV6 and EV7 chip designs. Alan was promoted to director of the Western Research Laboratory in 1999. WRL had active projects in pocket computing, chip multi-processors, power and energy management, internet performance, and frequency and voltage scaling. In addition to directing Google’s engineering efforts, Alan is actively involved in a number of Google’s community-related activities such as The Second Harvest Food Bank and the Anita Borg Scholarship Fund. Alan is an author of 9 publications and holds 10 patents. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Central Florida.
I like the gentle reference to the Western Research Lab, one of those context free Google references that I find amusing. There is also a genetic link to Digital Equipment, a source of a number of Google wizards. He has some interesting connections; for example, Cluuz.com reports this:
The key point for me was this statement from the Google interview:
Google is not interested in solving the small problems of the world. Its vast engineering talent (roughly half of the company) is eager to work on large problems that have a big impact on its users, says Alan Eustace, the senior VP of engineering and research for Google, who has been with the company for seven years.
The question for me is, “What’s “small problems” mean? Flip it around, what’s a “big problem”? The comment “big impact” does not help too much.
My take on this interview is that the Google is going to disrupt more than online, advertising, telephony, and publishing in 2010.
You can dig through the interview to find your own nuggets. Here’s one I found:
We’re well positioned on most of the things that we’re doing. But in hindsight we were a little slow in the mobile space because the ecosystem was very difficult to penetrate.
Ah, the irony of the “were”. So, now that the telcos have been converted into spaniels, what’s next? Clues abound in Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 22, 2009
A shameless pitch for my 2007 Google study. I don’t think I have to report that I pay myself to write swill about my impenetrable monographs based on patent documents.
Google Defines Open
December 21, 2009
Google prefers short communications. In fact, in most cases, Google prefers minimalist communications. Posts on MOMA are a living library of short messages. When a big Google message appears, something is up. Lots of words create targets. A long message means that the anti Google crowd can study Googzilla’s tracks and figure out something Google might not want to reveal.
The long essay “The Meaning of Open” by Googler Jonathan Rosenberg is worth reading. The addled goose flapped through the document and noted several points. The addled goose reads Google prose against the background of Google’s patent documents and technical papers. Not surprisingly, the “Sergey and Larry eat pizza crowd” see one thing; the addled goose sees another.
Three points:
- Google is going to ride the open pony hard in 2010. The sharp little hooves will gallop over those who don’t get with the program or follow the Google agenda. I have been saying “Surf on Google” for years. My thought is that Mr. Rosenberg will steer his pony away from Google surfers kicking back on the beach. Non Google surfers might not be treated exactly the same way.
- The “open” card is like a chess move. Once the game enters its final stages, open will become closed. Not much of Google technical plumbing is open, and it may never be.
- The challenge Google will pose is to the big, fuzzy enterprise software vendors who already offer open software and systems. Google is likely to follow the path of least resistance. I know that everyone sees Google gunning for Microsoft. I would not be too sure. I think the competitive flow may hold some surprises in 2010.
Like I said, surf on Google. Better to ride the wave than get smashed on the rocks.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 21, 2009
A freebie, a freebie. With DC in hibernation, I suppose the oversight becomes the responsibility of the National Park Service. Hence, I am reporting no taco for me for this write up.
Google Sends Signals to Telco Poobahs
December 21, 2009
I enjoyed “Verizon Snuffs Google for Microsoft Search.” The Register summarizes Google’s dalliance with Verizon. Then Verizon hugged Microsoft and slipped Bing.com into its mobile browser. Apparently some Verizon customers were annoyed. For me, the most important part of the write up was:
Verizon has unilaterally updated user Storm 2 BlackBerries and other smartphones so that their browser search boxes can only be used with Microsoft Bing. The move is part of the five-year search and advertising deal Verizon signed with Microsoft in January for a rumored $500m.
When I read this, I thought about Microsoft’s other attempts to buy traffic for the Bing.com search system. Like AT&T, Verizon is off balance. Google is no longer the clumsy Web search outfit. Google is a key player in the telephony market worldwide.
In my opinion, AT&T and Verizon have a bit of a problem on their hands. Google does not have to hurry. Furthermore, Google continues to nibble away at different chunks of the communications market. My research suggests that Verizon, like Microsoft, will have to find a better way to compete with Google. Depriving customers of choice and buying traffic are great tactics. Too bad Google is playing a different game with different rules.
Three blind spots for Verizon exist in my opinion:
- Verizon has to accept the reality that Google has better plumbing. That technology edge is going to put Verizon in some weird yoga positions.
- Verizon perceives itself as a giant company. It is giant. It is focused on the US market. Google, on the other hand, has a global vision. Thus, Verizon has a perception problem.
- Google has engineered solutions to some long standing telco bottlenecks. Right now, telcos do not understand Google’s many initiatives. This failure to see the different small communications actions like messaging in Google Calendar as part of a larger fabric. The Google engineers have outflanked and jumped over Verizon.
Telcos face start choices. Ignore Google. Cozy up to Google. Fight Google. None will work. Verizon will make decisions that I perceive as questionable because Google has nipped at Verizon. Like an angry bull in a bullfight in Madrid, the bull does not make good decisions. In the end, the bull becomes a quarter pounder with cheese. Through these cartwheels, Google is messing with the minds of telco executives. Most recent distraction: Nexus. I can hear it now, “Google can’t make handsets and sell them.” Maybe, maybe not. Distraction.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 19, 2009
Disclosure time: Freebie. I hasten to report this fact to the Bankruptcy Courts. Some telcos may end up in those fine institutions.
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