Google and Sage TV: What Went Awry with In House Tech?
June 22, 2011
I am not into television and videos like some of the goslings here in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky. We took a field trip to the big city when the Google TV became available. I was baffled. I like reruns of Lawrence Welk and some sports programs. The rest of the programming does not resonate. I still like printed books.
I read “Google Revives TV Buzz with SageTV Buy.” I understand that Google had to reverse the poor showing of its original factory. The idea of buying a company in business since 1999 had not occurred to me. Google has a bundle of patent applications and technical papers about rich media. I worked on a monograph about Google’s rich media efforts, but I shifted gears in order to write “The New Landscape of Enterprise Search.” I am glad I did. Google’s product for the masses did not excite the goslings, and, according to the article, not too many other people either. I noted this passage:
Google announced that it had transformed television last year, but TV somehow remained stubbornly un-transformed. People are still perfectly happy to use YouTube, and even watch it on their TVs, but didn’t flock to unify the entire experience under Google’s guiding hand. Additionally, the paucity of devices hasn’t embedded Google TV into the consumer electronics world.
What strikes the Math Club crowd as cool does not connect with a large segment of television content consumers.
The question, I want to capture is, “With Google’s significant investment in rich media, why has the company been unable to gain traction?”
I have a notion that Google does have high value technology for rich media. However, the company’s management set up makes buying a company easier than figuring out which in house technology to productize. Apple, on the other hand, seems to be able to generate gallons of lemonade no matter how sour the music, motion picture, and TV industry seem to be.
With Google pushing Sage TV to center stage, how long will advertisers feel okay with Sage TV’s ability to skip commercials? Google lives by ad revenues. Happy advertisers are, therefore, important.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Vivisimo Federal Day 2011
June 22, 2011
On June 1, 2011, Vivisimo held its annual Federal Day at National Park Conference Center. According to the Information Optimized article “Clean Sweep for Vivisimo’s Federal Day 201l” was a success. The topic of this year’s event was achieving return on investment.
Vivisimo wanted guests to see “that government agencies can and should measure return on investment (ROI), and that ROI on information sharing in government can be demonstrated by methods similar to those used in the commercial world.”
Susan Keen Dyer, a civilian executive in the department of the Navy, was the keynote speaker and discussed how to develop strategies to not only successfully deliver large-scale government IT projects but to also obtain the intended results.
Vivisimo’s Federal General Manager, Bob Carter, emphasized the financial perks of effective information-sharing. Lastly, Vivisimo’s Senior Federal Sales Engineer Gary highlighted the technological capabilities of Vivisimo’s products and how they help get the job done.
Audience members even got a sneak peak at Vivisimo’s new Customer Experience Optimization suite and what it brings to the table. With the success of Federal Day and the National’s big win the home teams definitely earned a “clean sweep.”
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search.
Arnold Columns for July 2011
June 22, 2011
The summer of 2011 is proving to be exciting. Google announced a shift from Web search to mobile search. A shortage of Lucene Solr developers filled my in box with pleas for people who could tame some open source wild ponies. AOL announced that it was going to plunge into the local deal pool. Microsoft announced that it intended to use one user interface across different devices.
With more than two months to go before summer winds down, I anticipate more surprising developments.
Here’s the line up of my for-fee columns for July 2011. Keep in mind that most of these for-fee columns are intended for print. A July 2011 column can appear two months or more after I submit the material.
Enterprise Technology Management (London, England). “Google Grinds Its Search Gears and Delivers Cold Mangos.” I discuss the implications of the Inside Search innovations on Google’s enterprise prospects and customers. Like I said, “Cold mangos.”
Information Today. “Microsoft Escalates the Multi-Device User Experience War.” Microsoft wants to deliver a common user experience across mobile, tablets, and desktop computers. I consider the challenges of this undertaking.
Online Magazine. “Is Solr Drying Up the FOSS Developer Pool?” I take a quick look at the causes and implications of a talent shortage for organizations embracing open source software.
Smart Business Network. “Can AOL Cook Up a Winner with Its Patch Local Advertising Service?” With the sector getting crowded, my hunch is that AOL will have to demonstrate that it can find room amidst some chunky folks.
The content in the for-fee columns does not appear in this marketing oriented Web log. If you want copies of these for-fee columns, please, contact the publishers directly.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: Fixing Embedded eMail Lists in SharePoint
June 22, 2011
SharePoint: Is The Dorian Gray Effect in Play?
June 21, 2011
“Is the SharePoint Community Past Its Prime?” sparked some discussion at Search Technologies. Our firm works with a number of search and content processing systems. We find that no single system is perfect and that most search systems can deliver significant return on investment to their licensees.
The article by the SharePoint Hillbilly raised several questions. Although the author’s focus was on Microsoft SharePoint, the implications of the author’s argument resonate across the search landscape.
The jumping off point for the article was an analysis of Microsoft’s role in the SharePoint community. In this case, “community” refers to the developers (certified and uncertified) who manage SharePoint installations, develop add-ins and add-ons for SharePoint, or support SharePoint implementations with management or engineering services.
With the rapid uptake of SharePoint, the SharePoint community has grown rapidly. Growth brings both challenges and opportunities. Among the challenges the SharePoint community faces are:
- Ego collisions
- Conference exhaustion
- Microsoft.
The issue in the article is not that SharePoint is unique. In our experience, user groups have been an important part of most major software companies marketing. The Dorian Gray effect is that the user group ages rapidly, often passing through a complete life cycle quickly and then fades away. I suppose there are some stalwarts from the DEC 20 user group that once met every month in Washington, DC, but the action has shifted.
The question becomes, “How can a community of those actively involved in a particular enterprise system maintain the freshness and excitement of the pre-gray hair stage of life. The answer is, “User groups cannot.”
The community begins with a handful of people, expands, and then shrinks. Email, LinkedIn, and other types of communication methods make it possible for those who want to be involved and stay connected can. However, the buzz of the face-to-face meetings, coding sessions, and heated arguments about the best way to accomplish a specific task mellow and often fade away.
The author says:
I want the SharePoint community to stay strong and inviting and growing. I don’t want the cracks I see to start causing division and fracture the community. I don’t want to see SharePoint Sundays pop-up because they don’t want to be associated with those Saturday guys. So I blog… I shout to the wind… and have a SharePint… or three…
We agree. However, the task is not to preserve the community around SharePoint, Autonomy IDOL, or Exalead CloudView, among others. The job is to recognize that individuals, consulting firms, third party developers, and even the “owner” of the enterprise software system form an interdependent ecosystem. The “community” is one part of that ecosystem.
At Search Technologies, we participate in multiple user groups. Some are relatively small and fast growing. Others are mature and shrinking. Our professionals are encouraged to participate, and we make an effort to monitor many groups which we are unable to attend.
The reason is simple: We think that the knowledge we gain from these interactions makes us better and more informed problem solvers. Furthermore, we think that our active participation in user groups contributes to our success. Some software systems fade away, but the value of the personal relationships continues.
Point your browser at www.searchtechnologies.com to learn more about our company and our services. We can help companies gain a business advantage from search applications. Alternatively, look for us at your next user group event, on LinkedIn, or at a conference.
There is no Dorian Gray effect if you remain active. Time is reversed with engagement and continuous learning.
Iain Fletcher, June 21, 2011
Search Technologies
Magic and Its Implications for Search Start Ups
June 21, 2011
“Abracadabra! Magic Trumps Math at Web Start Ups” struck me as a reminder that in a lousy economy, sizzle remains important. The write up references some interesting terminology and the even more interesting Groupon red ink. But with marketing magic mixed with accounting legerdemain, some start ups look quite exciting. Sizzle or the odor of freshly popped corn at the movie theater in a mall.
What about search start ups?
I have had briefings from several search start ups in the last week. I received one email this morning asking me, “Should we start marketing even though we are a new company?”
My answer was, “Sure. You can never be too rich or too thin or do too much selling and marketing.”
Then I realized that as sizzle starts to take precedence over financial performance, there may be some tough sledding for search and content processing vendors. Here’s why:
- Anyone can get search “free” or at low cost. Some outfits will toss in search when the client licenses another product.
- The financial performance of search companies has only a couple of bright stars amidst a number of brown dwarfs. Autonomy has done well, but other companies have flopped or been unable to mount an initial public offering.
- The market for search has shifted, so even Google killers are likely to struggle. Heck, even Google is marketing like crazy in order to keep its revenue engines running at peak efficiency. Despite the effort, traditional search is starting to pant. Social search seems to be keeping pace.
- Investors like data analytics and nifty outputs. Search systems can perform this trick, but specialists seem to be hogging the spotlight.
I think magic is important. Dassault Exalead has some, but the company is diversifying its technology across high profile, high value enterprise challenges, not just search. I don’t see too many vendors getting a gig in Las Vegas with information retrieval showmanship.
Traditional search is at risk of becoming a “Norton utility” in an outfit like Symantec. Magic is needed and quickly by start ups in the search sector. Repositioning key word search as customer support, business intelligence, and knowledge management won’t work as well as in the past with today’s funding sources in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Polyspot Connectors
June 21, 2011
PolySpot asserts that it has become the “go to” company for information retrieval solutions for companies.
According to the PolySpot Web Site, the company offers:
a modular solution for designing all types of applications research and implement a true transverse research infrastructure, meeting the needs of all company’s business. “PolySpot depends on a number of connectors for “interfacing solutions with a large number of applications.”
The Web Page “List of Connectors PolySpot” located on the PolySpot Web Site provides a detailed list of connectors they utilize to access comprehensive data as well as the metadata of various applications.
What is interesting is that Polyspot is embracing social media. The social content connectors play a role in the firm’s product development since the management reshuffle.
Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and MediaWiki are popping up everywhere and their influence continues to grow. Polyspot wants to make these sites’ content available to its licensees.
The fact that PolySpot uses information from these sites to design research and search solutions for businesses demonstrates how powerful and important social sites have become. Who knew simple terms such as “like or dislike” could pack such a punch.
April Holmes, June 21, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Sinequa and Blue Infinity
June 21, 2011
Blue-infinity has made headlines with the announcement of a new partnership. According to the blue-infinity blog post “Blue-infinity Partners With Sinequa” blue-infinity has partnered with Sinequa. This partnership will allow them to expand their already broad range of Enterprise search solutions. We learned:
“blue-infinity’s new partnership with Sinequa will enable us to continue to provide the most effective and cost efficient Enterprise Search solutions, tailor-made to our clients’ needs.”
Sinequa’s solutions are already in place several large international companies and over two hundred companies currently use their technology. The company’s customizable search engine “incorporates linguistic and semantic analyses” and is a useful tool for breaking down large volumes of complex data. Juan Manuel Garrote, a Partner at blue-infinity made the following remarks:
“We are really excited about this new partnership, and are sure that this will continue to strengthen our position as Switzerland’s number one provider of Enterprise Search solutions.”
With blue-infinity’s range of option and Sinequa’s extensive client base this could be a match made in heaven.
April Holmes, June 21, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: Tips to Improve Search In SharePoint 2010
June 21, 2011
What Does OmniFind 9 Cost?
June 20, 2011
Good question. We fielded this one a week or so ago. The answer was surprisingly difficult to find. We did get the info, and we wanted to pass along an item form 2010 which we wanted to document.
Cnet Japan reported “IBM Japan, Ltd., Announcing Search Software Which Mounts Both Functions ‘Reproducibility’ and ‘Comprehensiveness.’” In an article which describes the advances in this version of OmniFind, what caught our attention was the section on price. As translated via Google Translator:
“IBM OmniFind V9.1 fee is large for ‘IBM OmniFind Enterprise Edition V9.1’ is 716 million yen (excluding tax, 100PVU per case) per division that can start small ‘IBM OmniFind Enterprise Starter Edition V9.1’ is 40,000,491 yen (excluding tax, 100PVU per case, up to 200PVU).”
40 million yen was almost $500,000. We liked the entire post.
Cynthia Murrell, June 20, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
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