Search, Google, and Employee Excitement
July 7, 2011
No, we are not going to work Google+ into this write up. We are going to bring up an observation from an item lost in the roar about Google’s Facebook denter. Plus is not a killer. It’s more gentle, longer term, and just right for generating ad revenue.
Search Engine Journal revealed that “Google’s Schmidt Fears Arrests of Google Employees.” Schmidt, former CEO and current Executive Chairman of Google, spoke recently in Dublin at the company’s summit on extremist violence. The article elaborates:
Google’s objective, which focuses on providing access to and organizing the world’s information, isn’t compatible with censorship. . . . While Schmidt wasn’t willing to say which countries he fears may take action against Googlers, he did state that ‘There are countries where it is illegal to do things that Google encourages. In those countries, there is a real possibility of [employees] being put in prison for reasons which are not their fault.
Well, how do the employees feel about this?
Mr. Schmidt admits that he expects the problem to worsen as the Internet continues to permeate the world. It’s important to stand up for freedom. What happens when an annoyed government takes punitive action? Excitement.
Cynthia Murrell, July 7, 2011
Google Filters Ads but Decries Censorship
July 7, 2011
We like acrobats who can walk two tightropes at one time.
Let’s compare “Google Chairman Warns of Censorship after Arab Spring,” at Datamation to ZDNet’s “Google Takes Down 93,000 Scam Ads.”
The first piece cites Eric Schmidt’s concerns regarding consequences of this year’s uprisings across the Middle East:
Google chairman Eric Schmidt expressed his belief that dictatorial governments will begin restricting free expression on the Web following the democratic uprisings in Arab countries that occurred this spring. Many of these movements used Web-based technologies to organize protests and communicate with others. Schmidt says that as a result, government censorship of the Internet is going to ‘get worse,’ and he said that some technology executives could face arrest and torture.
That’s bad, alright. Isn’t censorship always bad?
Apparently not. The ZDNet article reports that, in cooperation with U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading, Google has removed 93,000 ads that linked to “scam sites” between July and December 2010:
Digital fraud is a significant problem for British consumers, according to Action Fraud. The UK’s national scam reporting centre said 23 percent of incidents submitted were carried out online. That figure includes cons such as fraudulent adverts, ticketing scams and dodgy online auctions.
Here’s an idea. How about educating consumers about fraud tactics? Nothing will dissuade the perpetrators better than wasted effort.
Isn’t taking down ads censorship? I get it; maybe this is different? Because in this case, isn’t able to decide what to filter? Is this also in cooperation with a government? Interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2011
The addled goose is the author of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Finding Folks on Facebook
July 7, 2011
Want to find people on Facebook? Mr. T (no, not that one) explains via thushyanthan.com how to perform an “Effective Facebook People Search.” We learned:
[Facebook’s] rapid growth is enabled by building on the trust of its current users who actively go out to search for friends, acquaintances and more. Facebook has its own ‘Friend Suggestions’ but sometimes, it is not accurate.
T. has a list of suggestions for using Facebook’s features to get better results. Most directly, you can search for a name or email in the search box at the top of your page.
You can also take advantage of Facebook’s connection to common email sites like Gmail and Hotmail, which tries to match addresses in your email list with those on its network. Similarly, you can login through the site to instant messaging networks and search there.
Cynthia Murrell, July 6, 2011
The addled goose is the author of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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The Google+ Love Fest and Search
July 6, 2011
Right off I want to remind you that I am not social. I urge others to be social, posting useful information in online systems. These data are quite useful for certain types of research. So have at Google+, Facebook, and any other system that connects you to your friends, preferences, and images.
The excitement about Google+ is, I agree, interesting. I read “Google+ Is a Marketing Sensation.” I don’t have an opinion about the write up which seems fine to me. I did notice one quote that did hook me. Here is the snippet:
Searching Google News brings about 6,000 results for “Google +”, but only 85 for “Mac OS X Lion Gold Master”, which Apple released over the holiday weekend. Anything Apple is typically big news, if nowhere else than techdom. Not this weekend. There are so many good posts about Google+, search is the best way to find them. [Emphasis added by Beyond Search]
A couple of thoughts.
First, I assume the search is the Google search function. The statement underscores that the core of Google is search, not social. I think this is an obvious statement, but I find that search the Google way is a brute force approach which is becoming less useful to me. For example, when I need a very specific item of information, I am asking people. This is the method I used before online search became widely available to me in 1981. As search shifts from brute force to surgical inquiries, I think more than marketing is going to be needed to make any new system deliver results. Google has an interesting service, but Facebook, to take one example,has a head start which may be difficult to overcome quickly and economically.
Second, the information about Google+ is easily findable. Most of the services that I use to look for interesting developments provided summaries or original analyses of Google+. To locate these stories, I used news aggregators like www.dailyrotation.com and iPad services like Pulse. No search required. I think that is an interesting point. Maybe social is not going to be the successor to brute force search. Social is more of a “find a human” thing, not a Boolean search thing.
Third, I found the assertion that Google has become a marketing superstar fascinating. The company has the ability to get attention. The same excitement seemed to coalesce around Buzz, Wave, and in Harrod’s Creek for Web Accelerator. The viral uptake is great and I think Google knows how to play the “semi exclusive” access card at the propitious moment. Is this marketing? In a sense yes, but Google just attracts attention and Google+ draws attention. Now Google has to move from marketing to money.
I think that will be the test of Google+. Can Google find a way to sustain its online advertising growth. So far, the company’s attempts to diversify its revenue streams have been disappointing to me. I think that Google+ has to demonstrate more than marketing and more than chasing Facebook.
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search.
Google Lobbyist Factoid
July 6, 2011
Short honk: Not sure if this factoid is on the money, but I found it interesting. Navigate to “Google Trebles Its Force of Lobbyists Ahead of FTC Probe.” According to the write up, Google now has 18 lobbying firms assisting the world’s biggest brute force indexing system to avoid hassles with the US Federal Trade Commission. I think that 18 is an interesting number. It is the average age of Match Club members who engage in arguments about the best way to perform mental arithmetic. Also, 18 is the number of lobbyists required to explain that Google’s “life” is “one click away” threat from extinction by such outfits as Blekko.com, IceRocket.com, Ixquick.com, and, of course, Bing.com. Most companies need 18 lobbying firms. Modest investment.
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2011
The addled goose is the author of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, and it is only $20. Such a deal.
Seven Years: Has Google Been Wandering or Progressing?
July 6, 2011
I promised myself that I would do my best to push Google+ into the SSNBlog.com which we will be restarting in a month or so. But I read “Google’s Path to Google+ Took 7 Years” and was flabbergasted. I know that the real media is a land of sharp minds, keen analysts, and meticulous research. Sure, there are missteps like the story in a New York newspaper that earned to publication a libel suit from a hotel employee. But overall, real journalists are the Mt Everests of information.
The write up left me with the impression that Google was a bit like a college student. Four years of undergraduate and three more years to knock of an advanced degree. Google, of course, does not have to worry about student loans, but the idea is that one begins a journey and then arrives, presumably at a job and maybe intellectual enlightenment. Now that does not work out. A Yale graduate told me that most of this year’s grads were chasing jobs, not landing them. Who knows?
In the write up, I marked this passage as notable:
But look back in time and it’s clear that Google has been playing in the social world for years, but never quite put all the pieces together in one place. Here’s a chronological look at the long path Google has taken to form what could be the next big social network, if the company can pull off the mega-coup of convincing most of the half a billion Facebook users it has a better service.
Source: http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/maze/mazecam.html
The walk down memory lane was Google’s management approach which relies on an interesting method called “controlled chaos” has produced some services that sure can look like social ramble. My view is that most of these services were islands, erupting from the “controlled chaos” of the Googleplex. Google’s most notable successes got their DNA outside of Google. Examples range from maps to Adsense itself. Now the company is hooking together services and asserting the mash up is a new Google. I see a 1998 style portal. So I don’t buy the hype. It is the same old Google, anchored in brute force search and selling online advertising.
The Google+ service seems to lack integration with Google search and Gmail, but I may have overlooked this obvious blend due to my nonchalant attitude toward social networking. Google+ is getting a jump start. Someone told me that those lucky bloggers with content on Blogger.com are going to be part of Google+.
My thought is that Google faces an interesting challenge. Facebook has defined its “space”, demonstrated an ability to move from one niche to others, and has information its users willingly provide. Despite privacy hassles and technical glitches, Facebook users appear to be loyal–for now. Can Google close the gap or will another company flow from one space into the areas dominated by Facebook and Google?
Microsoft’s rise and now its money-flush stagnation took a quarter century. Will the trajectory of Google or Facebook take less time to arrive at Microsoft’s location in the growth curve? My view is that time may be short for Google in the social space, and it may be even more compressed for Facebook. Happily I am approaching 67, and most of the people in the old age home eschew digital gizmos for a TV. Youngsters are going to make the decision for Google and for Facebook, not cheerleaders. I see wandering. With one revenue stream, I don’t see much progressing. Honk.
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2011
This post is sponsored by Pandia.com, publisher of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Brain Science: Is This the Next Generation Search Method?
July 6, 2011
I can hear the theme of Twilight Zone now. The voice of Rod Serling intones in my inner ear, “You are entering the world of search. Nothing is as it seems. You no longer type. You let the system think for you. The system is essential for national security…”
Most people would not equate neuroscience with beefing up national security, but Dr. Chris Forsythe and Dr. James Giordano say that brain science is not only necessary, but critical to our national security. Their article “On the Need for Neurotechnology in the National Intelligence and Defense Agenda: Scope and Trajectory” is a fascinating discussion on how “the impacts of neuroscience and neurotechnology will be far-reaching, changing the landscape of human capabilities, and will necessitate readdress of guidelines, policies and practices (1,2).” They go on to say that:
The ratio of applications to discoveries in brain science is high, and international advances in neuroscience and neurotechnology highlight the importance of maintaining US competitiveness in these areas. For example, researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany have demonstrated capability to predict test subjects’ decisions for simple choices based on neuroimaging-based assessment of brain activity arising prior to the subjects’ conscious awareness of their decision.
The experts then point out four areas where neuroscience could be applied and contribute to our national security. These areas are: (1) nano-neuroscience, (2) advanced neuropharmacologicals, (3) neuro-imaging and neuro-manipulative device, and (4) neuroinformatics and cyber-neurosystems.
After reading this complex, yet intriguing article, I must say that this is a trajectory of considerable significance. These next generation methods for national intelligence and defense are important to our future and its time we start taking them seriously. I no longer need to search. The system just knows. Great. Will the theme music play each time I need information.
Jennifer Wensink July 1, 2011
From the leader in next-generation analysis of search and content processing, Beyond Search.
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Perceptive Software, Brainware Inc. Team-Up
July 5, 2011
Perceptive Software has partnered the Brainware, Inc. to embed its flagship product, Brainware Distiller into Perceptive’s image capture and intelligent OCR products like ImageNow . Brainware Distiller increases the speed and accuracy at which companies can access and process information in paper and electronic documents. As described in Image and Data Manager article “ECM Market gets Perceptive”:
The Perceptive ECM platform is designed to manage content in context, not just handle ingest and routing’ said Giagnacovo (the GM for Perceptive Software International). ImageNow incorporates the Brainware Distiller engine for OCR and data capture.
This is a smart marriage between technologies. By combining Brainware’s intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions with the Perceptive’s enterprise content management (ECM) platform, the real winner becomes customer. They will not only benefit from top-class business intelligence, but their operational efficiency should greatly increase as well. It sure seems like a winner to us.
What’s interesting is that Brainware’s sales are not coming from its search technology. The firm is finding traction in the somewhat less glamorous but still important back office of organizations. Brainware is moving away from search just as MarkLogic is moving into enterprise search. Which firm is making the “right” choice? Maybe both? Maybe neither? Search seems to be more and more a problemantic enterprise function. Just our view from Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky.
Jennifer Wensink, July 5, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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