Google+: Strong on Social, Weak on Search? What?
July 22, 2011
According to the Computerworld article “Elgan” What I Lost On the Google+ Diet” Mike Elgan thinks it could be the next big thing. Elgan’s main point of his weeklong diet “was to see if consolidating and streamlining all social activity into Google+ was possible and, if so, desirable.”
He gave the platform high marks and found it quite functional and even a little addictive as a social media platform for all types of users. However, Elgan did admit that “Google+ is still a work in progress” and lacks a key factor, search. One of the most vital parts of any social media platform is the search capabilities. People go to Twitter and Facebook not only to talk but to search for jobs, news and other pertinent information.
Being able to search and network with clients in your industry, old high school friends or even potential employers is priceless. Though networking is key, search is the cornerstone of social media platforms. Elgan may thing Google+ could be the next social networking giant but without search, Google+ can’t seriously compete and is just an afterthought.
April Holmes, July 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
A Big Market Goes Beyond Google
July 22, 2011
Google may reign supreme in the US and other countries when it comes to the search engine world but they haven’t achieved world dominance just yet. According to the Search Engine Watch article “In China, Baidu Continues Search Market Domination Over Google,” Google’s position continues to decline in China’s growing search market. “While Google’s share fell from 19.2 percent to 18.9 percent, Baidu’s share grew to 75.9 percent, up slightly from 75.8 percent in Q1.”
Even as recent as 2009 numbers showed that Google held 35.6 percent of China’s search market compared to Baidu’s 58.4 percent. However, Google has seen a steady decline due to clashes with China’s government. Amid censorship battles as well as alleged Gmail hacking accusations, Google began to redirect its searches to Hong Kong.
On the bright side Google’s Android operating system “runs on about half of all new smartphones sold – roughly 5 million units per quarter.” And helps keeps them alive in China’s market. The search engine Sogou which grew to 2.4 percent aims to overtake Google’s spot within a year. It is an ambitious goal but even with their numbers declining one can be sure that Google is not waving the white flag just yet.
And there is Jike.com. It indexes ArnoldIT.com too.
Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Protected: SharePoint Records Governance and System Recovery
July 22, 2011
DtSearch Marketing Tweak
July 21, 2011
Blogger Greg Duncan focuses on enterprise search provider dtSearch in his July 6, 2011, iteration of “Greg’s Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day.” Here he cites I Programmer’s article, “Getting started with dtSearch” as the only recent piece he’s seen that instructs on how to begin using dtSearch. The original is indeed a thorough resource.
The piece is interesting to us, though, because it shows that dtSearch is trying a different marketing angle to developers. I Programmer’s Ian Elliot wrote:
“I also have a great interest in desktop search – or rather how it generally doesn’t work under Windows. Since Vista, Window’s desktop search has been difficult to use, difficult to configure and difficult to manage. I’ve tried alternatives such as Windows Search 4.0 and Solr but there are problems with both. They tend to over complex and simply not worth the effort. Now I’m investigating dtSearch and I can tell you now, it’s a refreshing return to simplicity.”
dtSearch has also added to its proprietary file parsers. Let’s see whether these efforts keep the firm as the darling of the Microsoft developers’ search and retrieval eye. Founded in 1991, dtSearch is a stalwart in Microsoft-centric search.
Cynthia Murrell July 21, 2011
Sponsored by ArticleOnePartners.com, the leader in crowdsourced patent research and litigation support.
Autonomy-Repsol Articles at E-Business
July 21, 2011
We’ve found an interesting roundup of Autonomy-related information on the Repsol deal at E-Business Library. What is interesting is that the page looks as if it were assembled automatically. Does Panda have a way to discern auto generated pages.
But automated or not, there’s a lot of information, and Autonomy should be quite happy with whoever created the Repsol page. Here’s an example from one of the documents snippetized by the service. The source is a this press release which sums up the Autonomy Repsol agreement this way:
“Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced that Repsol, Spain’s largest oil and gas company, has selected Autonomy’s cornerstone technology, IDOL (Intelligent Data Operating Layer) and Autonomy Virage for knowledge management across the enterprise.”
Repsol is a huge company with a LOT of infrastructure to manage. Autonomy provides expert tools for managing and analyzing information, including unstructured data, with their IDOL suite of products. In addition, Autonomy Virage is one of the leaders in video and audio search. Repsol employees will now be able to harness this power to manage their wealth of information and to share across their global operation. Sounds like a good choice.
Check out the roundup of articles at E-Business for more information. If you want to know what Autonomy is doing, you can navigate to Autonomy.com. The firm does a good job of posting information in a timely manner about its deals.
Programmers at Web indexing engines have their work cut out for them. Novices in search may have difficulty discerning the gems published by the addled goose from the pages generated from unknown methods.
Cynthia Murrell July 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Google Alerts
July 21, 2011
In the dust and haze of Google+, we wanted to make sure we captured this source of Google information. The service is called Code Google, and you can locate it at http://google-alert.blogspot.com/.
The idea is that a Google hungry person can navigate to the site and see pointers to Google-related information.
A bit of clicking around revealed an unusual mix of information. When we looked at the site on July 20, 2011 at 9 pm Eastern, the most recent update was earlier in the afternoon. We were able to locate the service in the Google index, which struck us as interesting. The site popped up when we used the site operator.
We tucked this into our folder marked “Possible spider bait.” We like more focused information services or what we call “sites with a tight semantic vector.” Take a look. Make your own decision.
Cynthia Murrell July 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Attensity Command Center Gives Clients Control
July 21, 2011
“Attensity Looks to Give Brands a Window into Social Media,” reports the Silicon Valley BizBlog. Attensity is touting its new Command Center software, which takes social media analysis a step further. It’s designed to display the real time information continuously to their customers’ employees. What caught my eye was this passage:
The Attensity Command Center is basically a bank of monitors and the back end software to run the monitors. Using proprietary, patented text analysis algorithms, the platform categorizes incoming tweets by subject, sentiment, and geography, etc. The goal is to aggregate and visualize what’s being said online, so that the customers can know in real time how many people are talking about them and what they’re saying.
Writer Jon Xavier experienced a demo of the product, and was suitably impressed. His only issue was that the passing tweets moved too fast to read them. He noted that to make full use of the software, a company would have to dedicate a couple of employees to monitoring and acting on the information.
Nope, it is not virtual. Will social media augment this reality? Image source: http://goo.gl/i3TIb
The interest in social media is fascinating. Once the Internet was for rocket scientists. Now the Internet is the place to stroll. A digital las ramblas. When gizmos are embedded in the human body, the Information Highway takes on an interesting shape. The metaphors used to describe the next big thing will be interesting. For now, Attensity touts control
With this offering, Attensity amps up marketing in the ad sector. Will it be enough to make headway against the Google+ marketing cyclone?
Stephen E Arnold, July 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Protected: Webtrends Analyzes SharePoint
July 21, 2011
Symantec Snaps Up Clearwell to Enter E Discovery Market
July 20, 2011
I do some odd jobs for Enterprise Technology Management. Among them is hosting podcasts on various topics. Last week we did a podcast with several luminaries in the e discovery market. E Discovery is a term used to describe the content and text processing required to figure out what is in unstructured content gathered in a legal matter. There doesn’t have to be a law suit to trigger a company’s running an e Discovery project, but unlike search, e Discovery beckons legal eagles.
We read the article “Symantec acquires Clearwell Systems for $390m.” Perhaps best known for their antivirus software, Symantec also offers an array of information management solutions. Clearwell Systems specializes in e-discovery tools, used in response to litigation and other legal/ investigative matters.
Symantec gains much with the acquisition:
Symantec notes the acquisition will add archiving, backup and eDiscovery offerings to its existing offerings, enabling it to offer a broader set of information management capabilities to customers. The deal will help Symantec provide future product integration opportunities with Symantec backup and security, Symantec NetBackup, Data Loss Prevention and Data Insight, the company said.
This acquisition moves e-discovery to the cloud, while continuing the appliance approach.
On the podcast I learned:
- There will be a push for more hosted services. Autonomy has done a good job with its Zantaz acquisition and its hosted services, so Symantec is going down a route that leads to a pay off.
- The Clearwell approach will continue to feature its rapid deployment model. I associated the phrase “rocket docket” with Clearwell which connotes speedy service.
- The Clearwell report and user audit functions will be expanded and enhanced. I saw a Clearwell report and watched an attorney pop it in an envelope for delivery to another attorney. The system impressed me because the report did not require any fiddling by the attorney. Good stuff.
Naturally, other new services are planned. Stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell July 14, 2011
Google Musters Patent Maginot Line
July 20, 2011
The patent wars make the goose want to stay in the cool, dark recesses of the Harrod’s Creek pond. Google’s many legal issues have been well documented, and now “Google Is Lawyering Up for Patent Litigation,” declares 9to5Google.
Citing a TechCrunch article, Jake Smith at 9to5Google goes a step further and includes a screenshot of an actual want-ad from the search giant. At issue in this case is the evolving patent tangle:
“TechCrunch is reporting that Google is hiring numerous amounts of lawyers in order to acquire more patents. Currently Google only owns 701 patents, a very small number for such a large company. In contrast Microsoft was awarded 3,121 patents just last year. Google will continue to get slammed with lawsuits if they don’t acquire more patents.”
Our view: The scale of these patent disputes is creeping toward Death Star scale. The stakes are high. Microsoft is taking the toll road approach. Apple is using its mixed martial arts and zen approach. Oracle and Google are thrashing. Who will be the winners? The answer is unclear. Who are the losers? Wow. I don’t want to speculate, but in legal tussles money wins. Lawyers often make out quite well. Users? Well, not really a consideration in my experience.
Right he is. This mess could be a boon for a few select lawyers. Who knew patent law could be so exciting?
Cynthia Murrell July 20, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, who will be publishing a new information service focused on the patent dust ups sweeping across the digital landscape. Coming in August 2011 and sponsored in part by Quasar Capital Advisors and ArticleOnePartners.com, both in New York, New York.
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