Azure Chip Search Consultants and the Goose
May 10, 2010
Remember the seventh grade. Charles Dickens, his Tale of Two Cities, this quotation:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only?
Setting: I am at a fancy reception, standing in a corner, tucking my tail feathers beneath me. I shivered in fear as I watched the attendees mingle. To my surprise, an azure chip consultant approached me. I had two additional azure chip encounters, but I will encapsulate my observations into this single ur-azure trope. I even have a logo I envision when I think about the azure chip search consulting crowd.
Source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/losers/lupe318/LOSER.jpg
Conflict: The topic was, “Why are you picking on me / us?” As readers of this * free * (and “free” is an operative adjective) Web log, I comment on the “findings” of azure chip consultants.
The answer is, “I am entitled to my opinion.” Unlike this Web log, which is * free * (note that word “free”), the azure chip crowd charges money for their pontifications about search, content processing, and related fields. When an azure chip pronouncement surfaces in a news story, I link to the story and offer my opinion. Not only is this useful for me, I find that a search for “azure” allows me to have a mini-history of what some consulting firms think, say, and do. “Azure” is an index term, a notion which even person taking an initial class in library science understands (I hope!)
Some azure chip consultants at work. Source: http://blog.giftcardrescue.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/pickpocket.jpg
What is even more startling to the goose is that his comments and published work stimulates and provides the fertile ground for the azure chip crowd to nurture their “research about search.” Search is busy morphing into many other disciplines; these include but not limited to findability, semantics, eDiscovery, user experience, business intelligence, customer support, etc.
The Play: Quick example: at the soirée, an azure chipster said, “When I was hired, my boss told me to read everything you have written so I could get up to speed about search. I am really indebted to you.” This statement is the real deal because I wrote it down on a note card right after the azure chip wonder moved on to talk with more tractable guests. No iPad for me.
So now I am supposed to smile like an avuncular uncle and say, “My child, what a wonderful student you are?”
Fat chance.
Here’s a round up of the comments the search consultants made to me last week:
- Question to me: How do you keep up with the news about so many different companies? Answer: I don’t. I use my Overflight software. My question: “How can you do your job if you don’t know how to track recent developments?” The azure chip response: A blank stare.
- Question to me: Why do you criticize my survey reports? Answer: They are at odds with my analyses. I look at revenues, technology, and the feedback I get from surveys I conduct for clients. Since I have been doing this work for decades, it’s not too tough to spot goofs. I like to identify really egregious mistakes and spotlight them. Great fun for me and my goslings. My question: “Why don’t you do this detail work?” The azure chip response: We don’t have the resources?
- Question to me: Why don’t you acknowledge our analytic work for the knock off of the BCG quadrant? Answer: Analytic work? Give me a break. You guys sell slots in those reports the way I sell ads on my Web log. My question to the azure chip wizard: Why don’t you label these ads as ads? The azure chip response: Silence and squinty eyes.
What is remarkable is that as people lose or change their jobs, some follow up with me. If asked, I point some toward potential opportunities. There’s always a search start up or KFC.
Dénouement. The azure chip crowd innovates in the Thomas Edison manner. Don’t know what that was? Back to Charlie:
I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.
Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2010
Unsponsored post.
Comments
2 Responses to “Azure Chip Search Consultants and the Goose”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
[…] Follow this link: Azure Chip Search Consultants and the Goose : Beyond Search […]
Very nice. As always a very insightful entry.