Google Apple Face Off
November 8, 2010
More than three quarters of all Android users are now running version 2.1 or higher” says Google’s Android Developer Web site. Sounds good, but we’re not fooled. The market Google created with Android may appear unified, but it won’t last says “The Worst Android Fragmentation is Yet to Come.” Rumors have it that Android 2.3 is will be out soon, then there will be Android 3.0 and so on and so on. With the Android track record, it’s doubtful that existing phones will be upgraded to the latest version. This fragmentation creates a management headache. For instance, what to do about old versions that can’t run apps that target recent versions? The iPad, on the other hand, is not fragmented and creates a monoculture. Which is the right approach?
Apple is the early winner with a 95-percent market share in tablets and 95-percent user satisfaction according to a survey by Strategy Analytics. Neil Mawston , the Strategy Analytics’ Director, in “Apple Increases Tablet Share to 95 Percent as Android Slips,” said that Android and other operating platforms “are trailing in Apple’s wake and they already have much ground to make up.”
Based on these results, we’re going with Apple over the all of the downfalls of the Droid. Mobile search will fly or flop based on the platform that captures the consumers’ attention. The horse race will be interesting.
Leah Moody, November 8, 2010
Freebie
Arnold Google Column to Informed Market Intelligence
November 8, 2010
After an 18 month run at KMWorld, change is afoot. Beginning with columns submitted in December 2010, Stephen E Arnold’s Google in the Enterprise column moves to Informed Market Intelligence. The monthly analysis of Google’s enterprise products, services, and strategy will appear in ETM, the independent resource for IT executives. You can access the company’s public ETM Web site at www.globaletm.com. Informed Market Intelligence also publishes hard copy as well and, like Mr. Arnold’s discussion of open source search software, some of his Google analyses will appear in other IMI publications.
What’s happened with Mr. Arnold’s KMWorld column? Beginning in December 2010, Mr. Arnold begins a new monthly column that focuses on the use of semantic technology in the enterprise. On tap for KMWorld will be critical looks at some of the surprising applications of semantic technology from some well know enterprise vendors like Autonomy and Exalead as well as explorations of next generation “understanding systems” from companies like Digital Reasoning and Palantir.
Mr. Arnold also contributes for-fee columns on a monthly basis to Information Today, Information World Review, Online Magazine, and Smart Business Network. You are reading a free blog; the good stuff appears in the for-fee columns. Mr. Arnold told me, “No duplication. The blog does one thing, usually broad topics with help from more than seven contributors. The columns do another—incisive discussion of companies, technologies, and business issues. Each column presents my viewpoint about key issues in digital information.”
Will the 66 year old Mr. Arnold be able to sustain this writing schedule? My view is that he won’t have the stamina. Betcha a dollar.
Ken Toth, November 8, 2010
Sponsored by Stephen E Arnold and ArnoldIT.com.
TEMIS Technology Permits Super Specific Ads
November 8, 2010
“Semantic Technology Brings New Relevance to Ads” highlights an exciting new trend which improves over traditional contextual ad targeting. Rather than using simple topical distinctions, semantic technology can differentiate more subtle meaning, such as positive and negative connotations or a related topic within the main topic. Examples given: a website about parenting usually uses contextual ad targeting to display ads such as those for diapers, but semantic targeting can note a section about the flu, which will bring up ads from a health advertiser instead. Also, a company like McDonald’s can avoid promoting itself next to an article about the negative effects of hamburgers on health.
“The more targeted the market is, the more valuable and engaged the audience,” said Guillaume Mazieres, executive vice president of U.S. Operations for TEMIS Inc., which offers a text mining solution for publishers. “If the publisher has content that’s broad and shallow, the value of that content is not great.”
Companies like TEMIS are entering the new semantic technology market sector to offer a text mining solution for publishers to help them increase revenue by creating aggregated topic pages with narrowly focused content to appeal to their users. This new marketing solution does not require access to user data, so it also can avoid privacy concerns, if necessary, or use user data to enhance relevance. A win-win solution for readers, publishers, and advertisers.
Alice Wasielewski, November 8, 2010
$5 Billion Target for SAP
November 8, 2010
Oracle’s ex-president Charles Phillips testified the company would have sought a staggering five billion dollars from SAP for skirted licensing fees had the deal happened over the table. This is twice the minimum amount sought by Oracle in a lawsuit with SAP dating back to 2007 for copyright infringement.
“Oracle Ex-President Says SAP Ducked $5 Billion in Fees” asserted that Oracle alleges that SAP’s unit TomorrowNow intentionally downloaded the “Safe Passage” software without consent to “avoid paying licensing fees and to steal Oracle customers.” SAP has admitted there were inter-company concerns over TomorrowNow’s actions and that the lawsuit was not entirely a surprise. The top producer of business application software has also conceded the downloads in question were in fact fraudulent.
Having freely admitted fault on this scale will likely make it difficult in the future for SAP to defend any settlement less than the five billion dollar figure thrown out today.
The proceedings will continue with Larry Ellison’s, Oracle CEO, testimony slated for November 8th. Kaching may go the cash register. With an infusion of eurocash will Oracle address its long-standing need for a next-generation search and content processing system? We hope so.
Sarah Rogers, November 8, 2010
Freebie
Exorbyte Receives 2010 German State Prize
November 8, 2010
Thanks to Exorbyte’s ingenuity, spelling is no longer an issue in searches. Not surprising from a company whose motto is “Seek and you shall find, even if the search term is misspelled”.
Exorbyte, headquartered in Konstanz, Germany and operating out of Portland Oregon, has developed a unique, extreme high speed search solution for large amounts of data that does not require additional hardware. The kicker is this product is intelligent enough to have a high fault tolerance, “correcting all spelling and other data errors on the fly or by suggestion”.
The article “Exorbyte at the State Prize for Young Companies” shows the jurors of the 2010 State Prize did not fail to notice such a great feat, selecting Exorbyte as one of the ten recipients. Industry has taken notice as well, with Exorbyte’s client list including the Alliance, the Federal Treasury, the Federal Central Tax Office, the German Post and Yahoo.
Exorbyte offers three high-end search platforms for structured data ranging from common commerce applications to the largest databases and data warehouses, making the products useful to small online stores and government agencies alike. Not to mention poor-spellers.
Sarah Rogers, November 6, 2010
Freebie
Search Vendors and Mad Men
November 8, 2010
What’s on the horizon for search and content processing companies? When it comes to marketing, there are changes afoot. I want to highlight some marketing methods that don’t work too well and identify three that seem to be working for certain vendors. Azurini, take note. Some of these methods involve your selling contacts in the guise of objective analysis. Believe it or not, you are now more Madison Avenue than most professionals understand.
My hunch is that you, gentle reader, are immersed in the excitement of every day life. You get a paycheck or send an invoice to a sugar daddy client. Life is reasonably good. Just don’t peer too far down the Road to Tomorrow is my advice.
Who can omit the lucky individuals who have to meet payroll, keep vulture capitalists high in the sky, and cope with the Peter Principle experience a different type of thrill. That thrill is the adrenaline rush of avoiding failure, ridicule, and becoming a bit on the Colbert Report.
As the search and content processing sector limps toward 2011, the challenge of generating big revenue looms larger. Maybe the proposed $600 billion in borrowed dollars will turn the trick?
Here’s what I have observed in 2010 about marketing search and content processing systems. These activities seem to be less effective than they were a year or two ago.
- Web site traffic. Vendors get really defensive when one looks at the traffic to search vendors’ Web sites. I know the usage states are wrong, but the data do indicate general trends. The trend I see is that traffic to the top 50 search and content processing vendors I track more closely than the 250 I monitor via Overflight is that Web site traffic is not so hot. Our review showed most Web sites have fewer uniques than this Web log. Run your own tests at www.compete.com. The situation is probably going to get worse in 2011, so that investment may not deliver a pay back beyond brochureware a person may stumble upon despite Google Instant.
- Web logs. These are not working. My Overflight system makes it dead easy to spot vendors with Web logs and the poor track record in updating the content with new posts and corrections. Blogs seem so easy to do, yet are beyond the reach of most search and content processing companies. Consulting firms like 451 and Gartner benefit because their services shift the content burden and the traffic acquisition from the search vendor to the marketing “experts”.
- Big trade show booths. Wow, these are expensive. One vendor told me that qualified sales leads are difficult to find at trade shows. Some types of events do work, but the 1980s style approach is a bit like wearing spurs when I drive a rental car.
- Terminology. I am not sure what some vendors are selling. The buzzwords are an effort to communicate. Most of the explanations from vendors are so similar I could cut and paste paragraphs from different collateral and most people would not notice. How about “information optimization” or “business intelligence”. So easy to say. So fuzzy today.
Quote to Note: Magical Blekko Search
November 7, 2010
Here’s a quote that caught my attention. No, it is not the “magical” reference. I found the passage in “How to Use Blekko to Rock at Your Job”L
As a regular and heavy user of Custom Search Engines, I’ve got some ideas about why most people are unlikely to appreciate the beauty and power of Blekko.
I don’t have a strong opinion about any search system today. What I find interesting is that search and retrieval that requires “work” or “effort” on the part of the user, appeals to a segment of the great searching unwashed. The big revenue seems to be flowing to “we think for you” systems. With Google grappling with hundreds of Angry Bird legal eagles, maybe there is a chance for an alternative Web search system. To achieve that financial pay dirt, I hope that users “appreciate the beauty and power of Blekko.”
Great quote.
Stephen E Arnold, November 8, 2010
Freebie
Endeca, an Underdog?
November 7, 2010
In “The B2B Underdog” Pete Bell, a senior manager at Endeca, details how the owners and operators of Business to Business eCommerce programs get together to discuss the bones of the business and how they get no respect in comparison to those who run Business to Consumer (B2C) programs. Never mind the fact that some executives of the B2B channels are making billions of dollars. The keynote speaker, Brian Walker explained why B2B isn’t doing as well as the B2C channels. He notes they aren’t using all of the same resources. Never mind that these resources are available to them, they have chosen not to take advantage of them.
“We know that with more channels comes more complexity. But it’s early – no one knows yet what the B2B experience of the future will be. So, In the face of change, the solution is to take a first guess, test, then improve.”
In my opinion, wouldn’t the answer be to hire more people and use the available channels and build from there? In order to compete with the B2C world they’re going to have to make themselves more available through the changing mediums that consumers are using to do business.
Leslie Radcliff, November 7, 2010
Is Google Defriending Facebook?
November 7, 2010
Reported in the article “Google blocks Facebook from its Contacts”, Google will cease to allow Facebook ready access to user’s Gmail address books. In a new Terms of Service adjustment, the offer of Google’s Contacts API is restricted only to sites that are willing to return the favor.
Google maintains that despite this policy revision, its commitment lies in providing a high level of accessibility to the data users pitch up. What Google has yet to recognize is that even a modestly savvy user will doubtfully be able to pull off the proposed workaround.
So, says Google, “We have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect the fact that users often aren’t aware that once they have imported their contacts into sites like Facebook they are effectively trapped.”
Interesting take. Most Facebook users would probably not be troubled to learn the information sharing is one-way, but these same individuals will almost certainly miss a stripped service they have already adopted as handy. For Google to imply its user’s best interest is the primary concern appears to be a farce. What is more likely is the corporate giant is not handling rejection well.
Has the sizable portion of Google defectors made Facebook a target? Or does Google only give to receive? It isn’t difficult to translate either scenario into playground semantics. So just like Apple and Oracle before, now Google is bullying Facebook. Maybe defriending is a gentle approach to a legal tussle?
Sarah Rogers, November 7, 2010
Freebie
BBC Journalists Show News Nose
November 7, 2010
Short honk: I am not a real journalist. I don’t have a pension. I don’t strike. “BBC News Staff Strike over Pensions” alerted me that real journalists write large with their actions. I am certain the rationale is solid. Nevertheless, I noted this passage as exemplary:
Members of the National Union of Journalists at the BBC are taking part in a two-day strike in a dispute over proposed changes to the pension plan….When employees draw their pension, payments will increase automatically each year in line with inflation, by up to 4% – again up from a previous offer of 2.5%. Bectu, which represents technical and production staff, said after last month’s ballot that the amended offer was “the best that can be achieved through negotiation”.
The impression this leaves upon me is that what is offered is not enough. The goose gets nothing yet does not complain. Real journalists do that I suppose. I do remember that the BBC search boss told me that the BBC had search nailed. I suppose that type of confidence extends to financial acumen as well. Pension funding and search are obviously no brainers.
Stephen E Arnold, November 7, 2010
Freebie, just like a pension except without the money part.
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