Google and Complexity
November 19, 2010
Quote to note: I almost feel bad for Google. Facebook integrates email into its social messaging. Google is still trying to find a way to get the Math Club invited to the prom. Now the Google TV earns one of those New York Times-type reverse back flip with a twist belly flops. To get the context for Google TV, point your browser at “Google TV, Usability Not Included”. [If the link goes dead, you will have to birddog the original article at Starbuck’s or on the NYT’s own Web site.] The write up “reviews” the lean back with your controller and enjoy an insufficiently aged mash up of TV and Web. I am not much of a TV person, so I can’t relate to what Google has created or devoted so much development time. The number of Google rich media patent applications is interesting in itself. Googlers, when not thinking about the distribution of primes watches TV, looks at Web sites, and does all matter of content grazing. I pretty much do one thing at a time and find my limited intelligence stretched to its limit when I try to do two things at once.
Here’s the killer point in the write up in my opinion:
This much is clear: Google TV may be interesting to technophiles, but it’s not for average people. On the great timeline of television history, Google TV takes an enormous step in the wrong direction: toward complexity.
The point is that Google is working overtime to find a way to pump up its revenue. Now the company is big and growing, but the “next big thing” seems to be located down the road or across the street, not in the Google’s expansive manse.
Forget Google. The economy is no good. Overly complex systems in the enterprise or in the grubby hands of consumers is not where the action is. At a recent conference, the principal knock against established enterprise software was that it was too tough to figure out, too expensive, and too complicated. Our neighbor asked me to fix the family’s Windows 7 machine. I told the neighbors to buy a Mac. Who has time or energy to figure out how to troubleshoot software arguably more complicated than IBM CICS?
As we head into 2011, my hunch is that the big story is not the success of Roku or Netflix. The increasing complexity of Google’s products and services has become a defining characteristic of the company. I don’t know how to get “clean” search results any more when I run a query. Exalead, DuckDuckGo, and Blekko are getting more of my time. Google TV gets none of it, and probably not too much of my neighbors’ time either. When I want to watch a TV show, I just look in the newspaper or the cable TV guide. To do Webby things, I have other gizmos that work just fine; for example, my Toshiba NB 305 or my iPad. Complexity is no longer a benefit to me.
Stephen E Arnold, November 19, 2010
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Fabasoft Mindbreeze Search Appliance
November 19, 2010
Austria’s Fabasoft Mindbreeze – a Microsoft centric development and integration vendor — has rolled out an appliance that offers users the opportunity to customize their configuration in order to meet the specific needs of the organization.
This Appliance combines hardware with specialized software to create a highly efficient search platform. In their blog post “Three Configurations for Dynamic Scalability and Deployment” (http://blog.mindbreeze.com/blog-en/-/blogs/three-configurations-for-dynamic-scalability-and-deployment) Fabasoft Mindbreeze outlines the various ways their Appliance can be used. The first level is a single Appliance, for small-scale enterprise environments; the second level involves adding additional Appliances and utilizing automatic data partitioning; and the third level involves multiple Appliances and index replication. It remains to be seen whether this type of set-up will be seen as beneficial by end users.
Many companies are offering appliances and the market is getting crowded. Some vendors, such as Exalead have moved towards cloud alternatives. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Appliance will have to compete with EPI Thunderstone, Index Engines, and the Google Search Appliance and prove that this Appliance performs where others can’t.
Laura Amos, November 19, 2010
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Google: A Digital Bloodhound?
November 19, 2010
It’s sad to say, but Twitter’s promoted tweets might just be following you from now on. Well, at least on Google that is.
Google has agreed to promote Twitter’s promoted tweets on its search pages, which are some of the leading advertising spaces on the Internet, says “Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Comes to Google.”
Twitter sells advertisements in the form of tweets to businesses. These promoted tweets show up at the top of the search results and will now be displayed above search results on Google’s real-time search page.
Danny Sullivan, of guru of Search Engine Land, called this exchange a first. (We think some pundits don’t know what they don’t know.) Nevertheless, Sullivan confirmed that both companies will share revenue from the clicks on the ads. Also confirmed was that this is the first time Google has ever allowed a third-party network to place ads on Google’s pages.
Quality objective content at its finest, right? Eh, not so much. Our opinion? #GoogleFail.
Leah Moody November 19, 2010
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Facebook: Dating Effloresces
November 18, 2010
The Facebook announcement triggered a flood of posts, punditry, and pandering. I quite liked “Locked in Paradigms.” Most of the other posts I did not like so much. Venture Chronicles struck me as coming closer to the Facebook email-instant messaging-kitchen sink communications service. The write up said:
It’s easy to see why Facebook is keeping Google executive up at night… they are innovating at the edge and at the core simultaneously, have complete control over users social graphs while Google has to piece it together, and have a distribution capability that is only rivaled by Google. Most significantly, Facebook doesn’t seem restrained by the way that common applications, like messaging, have always worked and their ability to lever into 3rd party applications gives them an enormous advantage just at the moment.
Facebook is riding a wave and generating buzz. Google lost the wave and people turned down the buzz. Dating has effloresced at Facebook. Membership versus generic services seems to have the magic. How long will Facebook’s momentum persist? Google’s run up was quick. Facebook’s may be quicker. Microsoft’s trajectory suggests that we are talking years. But the Facebook social Swiss Army knife will probably gut AOL and Yahoo. Collateral damage in my opinion. Oh, and if you want to know why some folks wax enthusiastic over Facebook, read this article. No comment about this percentage for the Math Club.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2010
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A Real Jab at Google: Facebook and Artificial Intelligence
November 18, 2010
I know that the poobahs swarming around the various summits and “numbered” conferences are excited about the future presented through Dollar General eye glasses. Not me. I am warm and comfy at the goose pond, reading “DST CEO Yuri Milner: Facebook Will Help Power Artificial Intelligence In Ten Years.” In my opinion the comments about Facebook and artificial intelligence are more important than the Beatles on iTunes, the wacky predictions of a bubblicious venture firm, and the last gasps of companies ready for the rest homes.
Here’s the passage I noted:
Milner believes that Facebook could be one of the platforms that drives the development of Artificial Intelligence over the next decade or so. AI probably isn’t the first thing you think about these days when it comes to Facebook, but he has a point — that the site processes an incredible amount of data, and it has the potential to develop powerful filtering tools using both this content and social signals.
Please, read the original write up. I want to offer three observations and then paddle back to the shore for a evening snack of day old bread.
First, the remark underscores the importance of “member” input where the crazed postings are complemented by whatever data the “member” provides. Data with these characteristics are likely to be better than numerical recipes that try to build data sets and fill in the blanks. Google is better at the numerical recipe work; Facebook is a leader in the crazed postings and “member” provided data. Facebook has an advantage.
Second, the comment adds another example of Google’s inability to regain the momentum the firm had in brute force search prior to 2006 or 2007. Until thee pivotal years, it was Google’s world. The emergence of Facebook as a player in a key technical activity is like an aging athlete who finally hears, “You can’t do it any more, bud.” Ouch.
Third, Facebook is now officially a technical problem for Google. The Xooglers at Google know the weak spots and I think Facebook will exploit them. After I learned about the Facebook “permanent distraction” approach to communication, the flaws of Google’s offerings become much more obvious.
Check out the interview.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2010
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IBM Search Woes? Some Help Available
November 18, 2010
IBM has just released some new tips to troubleshooting search issues for its Lotus Web Content Management (WCM).
After a brief description and illustration of the WCM search flow, the guide continues by presenting a method for running a trace on the search to identify where the problem lies. Apparently, the real problem is that the problem could be lurking anywhere within the process: with the initial seed list generation, the search crawler, the search component or the DCS conversion.
The next step after running the trace is to find where you fall in the documented “10 most common WCM search problems”:
1. Seed list is failing to fetch the content source URL
2. Crawler is aborting
3. URL has wrong host and port
4. Incorrect search results, or no results returned
5. WCM Links are not loading in the context of the portal for seed list 1.0
6. WCM search in a Virtual Portal is not working
7. Custom metadata is not displaying in the results
8. Problems when using Web Seal
9. Collection is missing or is empty
10. Server is running Out of Memory during search crawl
To state the obvious, this is quite a hefty list. Each of the ten problems are discussed in detail, some of which resulting from more than one potential cause. The recommended fixes are at a technical level that may not be conducive to the programming faint-at-heart, which is interesting for an application that touts tools designed for business professionals and content owners, not IT experts.
Scrolling through this tome of a troubleshooting manual a few times leaves one curious as to the efficiency of this program even on its better days, or the level of resources required to operate this beast. After perusing the entire guide it is clear that IBM’s WCM search function has some serious behind-the-scenes kinks to work out and perhaps even a patch to be issued if they truly want to circumvent those IT gurus.
Sara Rogers, November 18, 2010
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MarkLogic Delivers a Hat Trick
November 18, 2010
On November 17, 2010, in the high stakes game of data management, MarkLogic delivered a hat trick. First, the company put 450 to 500 people in a ballroom. In today’s stormy financial weather, the turnout shouts. The second goal was the line up of speakers. MarkLogic’s president hit his stride with a run down of MarkLogic’s financial performance, technical innovations, and client uses of the MarkLogic server’s ability to get unruly information to deliver results. The third goal was the technical deep dives that revealed MarkLogic’s robustness and the technology’s performance.
The MarkLogic government summit also revealed how the firm’s technology is helping veterans gain access to resources. The Warrior Gateway, built on MarkLogic’s technology, came to life in the remarks of Colonel David Sutherland. How powerful was the colonel’s 40 minute talk?
A three minute standing ovation and six people sitting near me with tears in their eyes. The emotion spoke volumes about how effective data management helps solve difficult problems for veterans re-entering their home life, forever changed by war fighting. Ease of use, yes. Performance, yes. Stable system, yes. Many vendors’ systems–maybe most vendors’ systems?–do not measure up to what MarkLogic delivers. That’s MarkLogic’s gain: surging revenues and customers who know the product delivers.
I was there and paid for my time, but I would have gone for free. I think you will want to navigate to www.marklogic.com and read about the firm’s enabling technology. I think you will find the videos shot on site and uploaded in near real time interesting.
But the message is, “MarkLogic has a technology that works.”
In today’s world where marketing baloney and former English majors explain complex technology, I find it refreshing to learn from customers how rocket science helps people meet their invitation needs.
MarkLogic won today in a shut out. Get your ticket for the next match now. I expect a repeat.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2010
Sponsored post and an honest one
Serendipity or Snooping?
November 18, 2010
Barry Levine reports on Eric Schmidt’s presentation at the Tech Crunch Disrupt conference in “Eric Schmidt Sees Devices Running Your Life for You.” With a couple of brief nods to privacy concerns, the Google CEO touted his fantasy of a utopian future where computers anticipate your every move. Levine gives an example: “You’re walking down the street and your smartphone reminds you of your appointments, notes nearby sales of those shoes you’ve been searching for, and points out that your ex-girlfriend is in the restaurant on the corner.” This might send shivers of excitement down Schmidt’s spine, but it makes my hair stand on end. I don’t particularly care to have ex-boyfriends or anyone else know what restaurant I’m in. For anyone who’s been stalked this sounds more like a nightmare than a dream. Even if by some miracle we could assume everyone’s best intentions in this scenario, there’s a reason the Panopticon was a prison, not a luxury resort. And with recent backlashes against Facebook’s privacy controls, I think I’m not the only one who is still concerned about the openness of personal information online.
Alice Wasielewski, November 18, 2010
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Google and Its Mistakes: Five and Counting
November 18, 2010
In early November, Marissa Mayer discussed Google’s biggest mistakes. According to Mayer, they are Google Wave, launching Gmail on April Fools Day, and shutting down DejaNews with no alternative for users. Now from Piaw Na we have “Five Google Engineering Management Mistakes.” These include sub-par management training; incentives for team leaders leading to poor management practices; recognition tactics that bred sour feelings among coworkers; a “heavy interviewer bump” that in practice led to employee cynicism; and skewed promotion practices wherein promotion decisions are made by committee and aren’t based on accomplishments. Na comments that “At its current size, Google is still more desirable an employer for engineers than Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and many other well known names” and that this desirability makes these mistakes more remarkable, not less.
Moving up the mistakes chart: Paying employees to stay on the job is an HR event. What happens if an employee takes the dough and quits for “personal reasons.” Heh heh.
However, if Google has made just 8 mistakes in 12 years, that’s a pretty good track record. Update: the news about Google’s offering one employee $3.5 million to keep working at Google, not jumping to the IPO-intense Facebook environment is moving to the list and moving up. What’s that Beatle lyric? “Can’t buy me love”?
Laura Amos, November 18, 2010
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Attensity Dials Up CCA
November 17, 2010
Attensity is a marketing daemon.
Attensity software and Contact Centers of America are getting together. “Attensity, CCA Partner to Provide Revolutionary Social Media Monitoring and Engagement Service” announces the plan to provide customer service through social media. Attensity’s vice president says: “This will allow companies just getting into social media to take advantage of the sophisticated social media monitoring, classification, routing and response products from Attensity, as well as the social media response services and expertise that CCA brings to the table.” With Attensity’s software, a CCA team can find social media discussions and respond with their area of expertise. Of course, social media is ubiquitous and important, but doesn’t SEO still take precedence for generating value? At least this customer service will be based in the United States, which seems like a radical idea these days.
Alice Wasielewski, November 17, 2010
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