Java: The Bitter Brew for Google and Oracle
June 17, 2011
It is column time. I look forward to my write up about open source for Online Magazine. Open source is an interesting disruptor in the enterprise software sector. When my column appears the Oracle Java Google dust up will be over. Here are some thoughts on the matter.
The legal battle between Oracle and Google is heating up as Oracle brings in an economics expert to elevate their platform against Google. We first learned of the lawsuit late last summer when Computer World released the facts in their article, “Update: Oracle Sues Google over Java use in Android.” In short, Oracle charged Google with copyright infringements on their Java-related intellectual property.
Does Oracle want to put a toll road on the information highway?
A little background: Oracle bought Sun Microsystems Java technology when it acquired the company early in 2010. If a software application is written in Java, it can be used on any computer that has a Java virtual machine installed. Google developed Android and its software was also Java compatible — called Dalvik . Google claims:
“Dalvik was developed as a “clean room” version of Java, meaning Google built it from the ground up without using any Sun technology or intellectual property.”
Oracle begs to differ; it’s been downhill for Google ever since — especially since Android has been so successful.
Ten months later and the plot thickens. Oracle’s demands in this lawsuit, despite the hush-hush nature of the negotiations, are clearly huge. Specific details aren’t known but it makes sense that if Oracle were going to go away quietly it would all have been settled months ago.
Strange Bedfellows: Search and Neuroscience
June 17, 2011
Oh, fair science, thou has done it again!
If you thought you could objectively make selections, “Expertise Provides Buffer Against Bias in Making Judgments, Study Finds” may change your mind. In taking a closer look at the human decision making process, researchers stumbled on what could be a small slice of gold for a number of fields.
To set the scene, twenty each of experts and non-experts were asked to evaluate artwork, while behind the scenes business sponsorships and monetary incentives were staged on certain paintings. Per the article:
In the behavioral study, most non-experts preferred the paintings displayed next to the sponsoring logo of the company that they had been told was paying them, while there was no effect of sponsorship within the expert group.
Advertising companies seem to have been operating off of this principle for ages to push products and services. Applying the results to the search field, one can consider that individuals without experience will also select hits based on their biases. This filtering goes undetected and is inevitable. So it practically goes without saying what easy targets said non-experts will be to fool with false assertions of what is perceived as credibility of a Web site.
Provided it steers clear of experts, did SEO just get a little easier?
Sarah Rogers, June 17, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Google Gobbles Social Sardine PostRank
June 17, 2011
Google is obviously making an effort to kick its social capabilities into gear.
Business Insider announces that “Google Snaps Up Company That Tracks How Social Messages Spread.”
Will Google use a lethal kung fu move against Facebook with PostRank or just a Silicon Valley “royal wave”?
PostRank is the third such purchase this quarter, following the acquisition of PushLife in April and Sparkbuy just last week. Regarding the newest members of the Google family, writer Matt Rosoff reports,
PostRank [is] a small Canadian company that helps companies figure out how far social messages like tweets and Facebook updates spread across the Web. PostRank has a couple dozen employees, reports TechCrunch, and all of them are moving from Waterloo, Ontario — home of Research in Motion — to Google’s Mountain View headquarters.
The parties remain mum on what they will be working on in their new digs, but we suppose it might have something to do with Google’s ever-intensifying competition with Facebook.
Is Google buying talent, technology, or both? With Facebook facing some new challenges, Google may have a chance to strike a surgical blow. Will Google use a touch of death (Dian Xue) or a gentle wave like the one the British royals have perfected?
Cynthia Murrell June 9, 2011
Internet, Reading, and Comprehension: Guess What
June 17, 2011
Robert Glen Fogarty at Lockergnome asks, “Is the Internet Killing Reading Skills?” That good question is addressed by a recent University of Gothenburg study. Here’s what researchers found:
Study head Monica Rosén says: ‘Our study shows that the entry of computers into the home has contributed to changing children’s habits in such a manner that their reading does not develop to the same extent as previously. By comparing countries over time we can see a negative correlation between change in reading achievement and change in spare time computer habits which indicates that reading ability falls as leisure use of computers increases.
Sadly, these results come as no surprise and were probably inevitable. Why read when videos are clearly superior?
Fogarty compares this development to growing up with television, which could be accused of the same effect. He actually credits PBS children’s programming with learning to read early, and suggests that similar efforts on the Internet could be beneficial.
Hmm, we’ll see. Meanwhile, please, pass the Cheetos and Dr. Pepper. Oh, hand me my iPad and mobile phone.
Cynthia Murrell, June 17, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: MetaVis Information Manager Improves SharePoint
June 17, 2011
Google and Oracle: A Hypothetical Price Tag for Alleged Java Brewing
June 16, 2011
Short honk: Google is an ad outfit. Oracle is a database outfit. Google used to have a lot of Sun executives. Oracle now owns Sun. Google uses a Java-esque method in Android. Oracle owns Java, no “esque”. Mix and put in the Silicon Valley sun. What does one get? Another legal hassle for Google and a potentially huge pay day for Oracle. The hypothetical price tag appears in “No More Doubt: Oracle Wants Billion-Dollar Amount from Google.” With Google making mobile search its new money Mississippi, Oracle may want to dam that river and pump cash into its channels. On which company does one bet? The goose does not wager but he has a fondness for the old dolphin way.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Library of Congress: Tweets Are for Real
June 16, 2011
Twitter tweets are headed to a very surprising new home. According to the O’Reily Radar article “How the Library of Congress is Building the Twitter Archive” Twitter plans to hand over all public tweets, since its inception in 2006, to The Library of Congress.
Researchers have been anxiously lining up for their opportunity to crack open the Twitter archive. Twitter fans create millions of tweets per day and according to the article:
“Each tweet is a JSON [JavaScript Object Notation] file, containing an immense amount of metadata in addition to the contents of the tweet itself: date and time, number of followers, account creation date, geodata, and so on. This requires a significant technological undertaking on the part of the library in order to build the infrastructure necessary to handle inquiries, and specifically to handle the sorts of inquiries that researchers are clamoring for.”
It seems that the Library of Congress has validated tweets as real information, not fodder for text analytics. Hopefully the Library will tackle some of the other content it has in its possession. I am thinking about images of which American Memory is a subset and fair copies of certain documents.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Motorola CEO Admits Open Android Store Can Cause Problems
June 16, 2011
The Android App Store is to blame according to the Computer World article “Motorola CEO: Open Android Store Leads to Quality Issues.”
Sanjay Jha, the CEO of Motorola Mobility. claims that the majority of Motorola phones are returned because of performance issues caused by malicious applications downloaded from Android Market.
Google has an open door policy when it comes to uploading apps to the application store. “For power consumption and CPU use, those apps are not tested. We’re beginning to understand the impact that has,” Jha said.” Motorola has modified its Motoblur application to help better understand applications and their effect on performance. The article asserts:
“Motoblur collects information about customer use of applications and how that use relates to functions like power consumption. We are getting to the place that we should be able to warn you,” Jha said.”
Motorola hopes Motoblur can serve a twofold purpose. Not only will it alert customers concerning malicious acts but it could also provide Motorola with an attractive competitive age in the large Android market.
The criticism is particularly pointed because on June 15, 2011, Google focused more attention on Android and mobile search. If malware or other issues plague the operating system, Google may have a difficult-to-control problem on its agenda.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Attensity Marketing Themes Revealed
June 16, 2011
In my email was the Attensity newsletter, dated June 15, 2011. In addition to unaudited assertions like “the company’s most successful quarter to date” and the word “successful” undefined, there were some interesting hints about the company’s strategy.
First, in the letter from the CEO (Ian Bonner), the company has rolled out a Customer Command Center. The militaristic suggestion is fascinating. A number of search and content processing vendors offer dashboards, but the command center may be a fascinating new view of what text processing software is supposed to do.
Second, the company continues to emphasize the new release of the firm’s flagship, Attensity 6.0. You can get additional information about the system from a Web page with the title “BI Guys Watch Out, It’s Never Been This Easy.”
Third, Attensity continues to use webinars to drum up awareness and business. In what I find an interesting move, the webinar about “accuracy” now includes a companion white paper. You can read that document at this link. Registration appears to be simple once you provide the all important contact information. The one two punch of a webinar and a more traditional white paper may be one indication that hot new marketing methods require multiple payload delivery vehicles. I wanted to pick up on the “command center” metaphor.
Finally, a battle of assertions about sentiment appears to be escalating. I elected not to report about the misfires of one well known vendor of sentiment solutions. It seems that Attensity has picked up some vibrations and responded with “When Does Sentiment NOT Matter?” The idea is that sentiment is not an all purpose solution. I agree with Attensity. Perhaps some blogger or sentiment vendor will step up and rip the skrim from the reality of sentiment analysis.
Net net: the “command center” analogy strikes me as marking a step up in the marketing warfare for text analytics. One indicator will be the diffusion of the “command center” metaphor. Which competitor will be the first to embrace this Attensity-ism?
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: Set Your SharePoint Site a Twitter
June 16, 2011
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