Questioning the Voice of the Customer
July 12, 2011
With search vendors embracing customer service and customer support, here’s an interesting insight into the niche: Steve McKee at Bloomberg Businessweek declares that “The Customer Isn’t Always Right.” Yeah, customers—who needs ‘em!
Actually, McKee does acknowledge that businesses should heed consumer voices much of the time. However, he insists that the reality of competing interests limits the value of that information:
As Adam Smith pointed out: ‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest.’ The same is true of the people who purchase the meat, the beer, and the bread. If you ask customers to design the perfect product, they’ll rack up the features and ratchet down the price, then be thrilled to buy from you all the way through your ‘Going Out of Business’ sale.
Businesses must balance customer input with knowledge about their own needs. The sting of losing a few sales because your prices are too high is small compared to the importance of protecting your bottom line.
What’s becoming increasingly clear, search vendors who offer customer support solutions are helping companies which want to reduce their customer support costs. Helping the customer? Maybe that is a secondary or tertiary benefit?
Cynthia Murrell, July 12, 2011
Russian Search Engine Yandex Fortifies its Position
July 12, 2011
Search Engine Watch reports that “Yandex and Rambler Band Together Against Google Russia.” Unlike in most markets, Google is not the supreme search engine in Russia. Yandex holds that position, and it has no intention of letting it slip away.
To that end, the company has partnered with Rambler, a Russian web portal that reaches 4.2 million users, not including its side branches. Writer Rob D. Young puts the match into perspective for Americans:
In some ways, this deal looks similar to Microsoft’s partnership with Yahoo: Yandex is running Rambler’s search and ad element in much the same way as Bing is running Yahoo’s. However, the purpose is quite different. While Microsoft and Yahoo were joining forces in a bid for survival against the monolithic beast that is Google, Yandex is already the superior entity (64.8 percent of search market share) and is fighting to keep a one-sided fight going in its favor. It would be more like if Yahoo had decided to throw its chips in with Google back in 2010.
Google faces a challenge here. As that company chases Facebook and pursues its mobile vision, Yandex is poised to siphon off search traffic. Has Google’s focus become too scattered? If Google gets distracted with me too plays in social media and playing the global mobile operating system game, Yandex could become a better search engine and do to Google what Google did to other search systems in 1998 and 1999. Interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, July 12, 2011
From the leader in next-generation analysis of search and content processing, Beyond Search.
Microsoft and Its Different Search Systems
July 12, 2011
We noted SharePoint Geek’s useful blog post “Comparing SharePoint 2010 Search: Foundation vs Server vs FAST.” The table presents in a very succinct manner the three main search solutions available from Microsoft. In fact, this table is something we suggest you tuck into your SharePoint Reference folder, which was put together by the editor at LearningSharePoint.com.
Let’s take a quick look at the three search systems available from Microsoft. Search Technologies has significant experience with each of these within our Microsoft Search Practice, and we find them useful within the design and configuration constraints which Microsoft’s engineers have defined for each system.
SharePoint Foundation 2010 is what we call “basic key word search.” The product is included with SharePoint 2010. It does a solid job of indexing content within a properly configured SharePoint installation. If you are a small business with two or three people who need access to shared content, SharePoint Foundation is going to be a logical choice.
The upgrade is the search function in SharePoint Server 2010. In a nutshell, the basic key word search and intranet indexing is similar to that in Foundation. Additional features provided with this Microsoft search system include:
- An entity search which is optimized for people
- A query federation function which allows content from different intranet sources to be combined in one results list.
- Graphical administrative interface.
A basic “suggested search” or “see also” function is available as well. This search system may meet the needs of most small businesses. If you need to access external content, you will want to upgrade to the Fast Search system.
The features of the Fast solution include:
- Basic search
- A document preview function so the application does not have to launched to view the content
- Intranet indexing
- Indexing of Web and third party content not within the licensee’s SharePoint repository
- Concatenated results lists; that is, information from multiple collections and sources
- A graphical administrative tool
- Faceted search.
Our view is that if you implement the SharePoint Server 2010 or Fast Search Server 2010, you may want to enlist the support of a company like Search Technologies. There are three reasons:
First, engineers working on SharePoint without deep experience in search will benefit from the expertise obtained through dozens and dozens of SharePoint Search and Fast Search deployments.
Second, the optimization techniques that a firm such as Search Technologies possesses often allow a SharePoint licensee to maximize performance without the need to scale up and out.
Third, the customization functions are rich; however, some of the methods for fine tuning certain features often require custom scripting or the use of methods not required for SQL Server or Exchange. Therefore, a third party can reduce the time, cost, and frustration of adding the final touches to a SharePoint “findability” solution.
Please, navigate to www.searchtechnologies.com to learn more about our expertise in deploying Microsoft’s search solutions.
Iain Fletcher, July 12, 2011
Search Technologies
SharePoint Service Package Documentation
July 12, 2011
We have lately been discussing the service pack for SharePoint 2010 in many of our posts. Users have been waiting with anticipation for this service pack, but do they actually know what they are getting? The Technet Blog has an article that describes it: “Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products Documentation.” The Service Pack 1 is ready for download and includes many beneficial updates for users. Among these are specific fixes and shallow copy functionality. Users gain the ability to recover site collections from the recycle bin. There is also support for the SQL server code name “Denali.” There are even improvements to the StorMan.aspx—storage management or Storage Space Allocation. More handy features are cascading filters for Performance Point services and even additional browser support.
These updates are certain to please all SharePoint users. The SharePoint support team has also published further documentation on the Service Pack 1:
“The SharePoint documentation team has published new and updated articles that were available as of June 28. For more information about these articles, as well as to learn what’s new in this service pack, download the Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 white paper.”
Before you download the Service Pack 1, read the white paper and this article to help prepare your SharePoint server for the improvements. The only fault Service Pack 1 has is that there aren’t any upgrades for SharePoint search. You don’t need to wait for Microsoft to create an upgrade, however, SurfRay’s Ontalica search engine is all that you will need.
Torben Ellert, July 12, 2011
SurfRay
Zomobo Useful. Not a Traditional Search Engine
July 11, 2011
We’ve run across a new tool: “Zomobo: The Real-Time Encyclopedia.” The system’s About page defines itself:
“Zomobo is a web application structured thematically around topics, like in an encyclopedia, enhanced with a set of features and interactive functions. It integrates contents loaded from different online sources under one single interface, providing a wide spectrum of digital contents and up-to-the-minute data. For every valid topic, Zomobo presents a list of modules with content loaded in real-time from multiple web services, categorized by media type or data source.”
Interesting concept, especially for those of us who grew up with actual encyclopedias. Check it out.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2011
Sponsored by ArticleOnePartners.com, your source for patent research.The MySpace Method: Will It Apply to Facebook and Google?
July 11, 2011
The trials and tribulations of giant corporations are almost amusing as the antics of cash strapped non profit organizations. Here in good old Kentucky, the local orchestra is like a feature in Mad Magazine. The audience is not going anywhere except the rest home with a disco ball. I will be there soon, and it is easier to site in my mossy nook and gaze at the wonders of Insight cable TV.
I did enjoy the write up “The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace.” Not only did the Media Mogul, Rupert Murdoch, pay a half billion for an online social property, he sold it for $35 million. Yep, that online sector is a piece of cake. Here’s the passage I enjoyed:
Mismanagement, a flawed merger, and countless strategic blunders have accelerated Myspace’s fall from being one of the most popular websites on earth—one that promised to redefine music, politics, dating, and pop culture—to an afterthought. But Myspace’s fate may not be an anomaly. It turns out that fast-moving technology, fickle user behavior, and swirling public perception are an extremely volatile mix. Add in the sense of arrogance that comes when hundreds of millions of people around the world are living on your platform, and social networks appear to be a very peculiar business—one in which companies might serially rise, fall, and disappear.
The article provides a reasonably good analysis of the “externalities”, the tough world of digital stuff, and the task of keeping the attention deficit, entitlement crowd engaged.
Two factors were not given sufficient emphasis. Let me comment on these.
First, the trajectory of MySpace is similar to what has happened to Lycos and is happening to AOL and Yahoo. The point is that social networks, like search, are likely to live fast and die young. F Scott would drink to that. I just will point out that multiple revenue streams, constant reinvention, and all thumbs management cannot “save” an online property that loses its magnetism.
Second, failure today creeps up. Look at how much effort and money Mr. Murdoch pumped into the outfit. Start with a half a billion dollars. Look at what happened. As money goes in, cash cannot turn on the magnetism. Even when losing a million users per month, MySpace kept the lights on. I suppose hope springs eternal in the human breast, but when traffic heads south, getting traffic back is getting harder. Let’s hear it for the all thumbs approach to monitoring MySpace’s vital signs.
Bottom line: Today’s high magnetism sites may be losing power as the party goes on. The MySpace Method.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2011
Sponsored by Rolling Research, the source for automotive technology information.
Exalead Injects Its Expertise into Dassault Aviation
July 11, 2011
It’s a great idea for an aviation company: a search-based application for flight line crew and mechanics. Timely information is precious in this area. The write-up elaborates:
“Developed in less than a month by a mixed Dassault Systèmes-Bull team, it allows instant post-flight access to all the maintenance data used for diagnostics support.
“Several hundred thousand records – aircraft, system and equipment repair records and other maintenance reports – contained in different databases are collected, indexed and linked together by high-performance search algorithms. The innovations offered by this new technology open the way to other applications in every sector of the company’s activities.
As just one example, the piece cites a worldwide spare part stocking system. Efficiency is good.
We have long been impressed with Exalead and its industry-leading technologies. The company serves clients worldwide with both Web and enterprise search products. Their advanced semantic technologies can’t be beat.
Dassault Aviation is another company we admire. A subsidiary of the Dassault Group, the French company has been operating since 1930. They manufacture cutting-edge jets for military, regional, and business use.
Cynthia Murrell, July 11, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search.
Inteltrax: Top Stories, July 4 to July 8
July 11, 2011
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, particularly the ups and downs of corporations dipping their feet into the business intelligence pool.
We kicked off the week looking at a decidedly negative aspect of this theme. In the feature story, “Ticketmaster and Ticketfly Woefully Behind Other Analytics,” http://inteltrax.com/2011/07/ticketmaster-ticketfly-woefully-behind-other-analytics/ we were shocked to discover how poorly ticketing giants are using the wealth of data they are sitting on top of.
Computing kingpin, Apple, also seems to be playing with analytic fire with its BI security. Our story, “Apple Fails to Protect its BI Passwords,” http://inteltrax.com/?p=1923 took a deep look at how Steve Jobs and company failed to protect sensitive BI info and showcased a clutch of companies that could do the job the right way.
However, some big companies are coming to rescue struggling industries. We highlighted this exciting phenomenon in “Google and Others Aim to Rescue Newspapers,” http://inteltrax.com/?p=1919 the story of how the search monster’s Google Analytics and smaller companies are tailoring analytic software to make newspapers more efficient.
These stories all look at analytics and business intelligence with a wide angle lens. We do this because our data is being transformed into power right before our eyes and the people making the biggest noises, unsurprisingly, are the biggest companies. That doesn’t mean they’re the only ones doing something worthwhile, though, and we’re going to cover this revolution from all angles, great and small.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting
www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax, July 11, 2011
Microsoft’s New Office 365 for SharePoint and Exchange
July 11, 2011
We thought Microsoft had enough on their hands with Windows 8 and SharePoint update patches, but they’ve been working on other projects like Office 365. The Channel Register reviews the new application in “Google Apps v Microsoft Office 365: Rumble In the Enterprise.”
Office 365 is a beta with four cloud-hosted components: Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and Office Web Apps with Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in future versions. There are multiple subscription plans for Office 365 meant for educational institutes, small businesses, and enterprises. There is a kiosk plan for people without a dedicated computer.
According to the review, it has worked just as Microsoft explained. At the moment, it appears to be a good alternative for large/small business organizations who want to dump their SharePoint/Exchange servers for the cloud. As with anything in Microsoft there are problems, but there is a lot of good in Office 365. It is aiming to be a rival with Google Apps operating under the assumption that users would prefer to work with documents in Office Suite applications instead of a browser like Google Apps.
The end result is split:
Google Docs is less feature rich than Microsoft Office, offline is a problem, and as soon as you start relying on Google’s integration with Office and Outlook its story becomes less compelling. One the other hand, Microsoft’s Office 365 fails to deliver all the benefits of cloud in terms of client-neutrality, freedom from the hassles of managing local desktops, and removal of the need for on-premise servers. You still need Office, there is still a bias towards Windows, and some features actually require on-premise servers.
As it is still in the beta phase, Office 365 will be testing the bugs for some months. Google and Microsoft are fighting yet another battle in the long, long application war. The ideal solution would be a combination of Google Apps and Office 365, but that will never happen with money on the line. Or you just check open source. I beg another question, is this battle even worth following with conflicts between Facebook, Apple, and Amazon going on? Take a break from the war zone and reconfigure your SharePoint search with SurfRay products.
Torben Ellert, July 11, 2011
SurfRay
Google Benefits: SADA Systems Achieves GSA MAS Contract
July 10, 2011
“GSA Awards SADA Systems, Inc. with Multiple Award Schedule Contract for Google Apps Products and Services,” relates Red Orbit. It seems that Google is still a player in the U.S. government procurement derby.
SADA Systems provides Google Apps to public sector as well as private enterprise clients. The company started out in 2000 as a Google search technology partner, and went on to become one of the first ten Google Apps partners.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) handles allocation of government contracts. That SADA Systems has passed their rigorous certification program testifies to the company’s strong performance.
Regarding the multiple award schedule contract (MAS), the article summarizes:
“This negotiated contract will allow federal, state, and local government agencies with access to the GSA Schedule Contract program to contract directly with SADA for a variety of Google Apps related products such as Google Apps, Postini, and related services.”
That will speed up procurement of SADA services by government agencies at all levels. Quite the coup. And, of course, having this framework in place makes reliance on Google Apps that much closer to automatic. Nice move for Google which suffered a rumor last week that it was excluded from some juicy General Services Administration contracts.
Go, go, Google.
Cynthia Murrell July 10, 2011
You can read more about enterprise search and retrieval in The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, published by Pandia in Oslo, Norway, in June 2011.
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