More Apple i Pain
October 20, 2011
Users Report Syncing Issues When Using Apple’s iCloudAfter much anticipation, Apple’s iCloud http://www.apple.com/icloud/, a wireless storage unit for your music, photos, and other documents, is now available to users of the company’s products and services.
Don Reislinger from Channel Insider http://www.channelinsider.com/ has come out with an informative slide show, revealing the “Ten Things You Need to Know About iCloud”.
In addition to having many other nifty qualities, Reislinger said of the iCloud:
Syncing reigns supreme. Whether it’s music, applications, iBooks, or documents, users will find that iCloud automatically syncs their content across their devices. It might seem like a simple addition, but considering how difficult (and annoying) it has been to add content to multiple devices, the service’s syncing feature is a welcome addition.
Unfortunately, according to Apple Insider, the documents and data syncing feature has proven problematic for some users, who said that their files were unexpectedly deleted.
Documents created on one device, be it in Pages or Keynote, are there for awhile, and then when you go back, you can literally see iCloud delete them in front of you.
For those who are frustrated with the iCloud’s teething issues, take a look at Polyspot’s or Blossom Software’s approach. Both firms “do” the cloud in interesting ways and avoid what appear to be Apple pits on the forest floor.
There are stable cloud platforms. We find it interesting that coincident with Apple’s earning downturn, other problems are cropping up. Will Apple’s woes drive customers to Amazon, despite the company’s flawed search system? Worth watching.
Jasmine Ashton, October 20, 2011
Freebie…Yes, believe it.
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SEO Experts May Need a New Job
October 20, 2011
Under the pretense of heightening users’ security, Google has decided to pull the plug on keyword referrer information for logged in users. Search Engine Land collected and posted some of the more interesting reactions from online publications in their article, “Reactions from SEOs Come Loud, Fast, and Often Angry To Google’s Switch To Encrypted Search.”
To break down the news, basically users signed into Google.com will be sent to the https version of Google. Keywords used in their search queries will not be tracked or reported, even to Google Analytics. Google claims that less than 10 percent of users will be affected by this change.
This article correctly points to Google’s true motivation for this switch. It asserts:
Well, it won’t be hidden if those searchers click on one of Google’s ads because, in that case, Google says its advertisers need to be able to “measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and to improve the ads and offers they present to you.
Oh, oh.
SEOs are in a tizzy with this information. Search Engine Journal reported on it, Holistic Search Marketing laments on the changes here, and HOBO hypothesizes on the future.
It seems that the reactions are a testament to just how much Google’s keyword referrals benefited SEOs. Google wants to favor those who pay–those who use Google Adwords. It’s a good thing you get a free $100 in campaign money just for signing into Google Webmaster Tools.
Megan Feil, October 20, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Gain Power, Lose Control? A Search Variant
October 20, 2011
The future of technology, like always, is fascinating: personal virtual assistants, customized search results, and big changes to information appliances. However, the new future Silicon Valley giants like Apple, Google and Facebook will be creating a mix of changes that will bring both unique benefits and some bad results.
It seems that the more advanced and powerful technology becomes, the more control users lose. We learn more in Datamation’s article, “How Apple, Google and Facebook Will Take Away Your Control,” which tells us:
“The more advanced this technology becomes, the bigger the decisions we’ll rely on them to make for us. Choices we now make will be “outsourced” to an unseen algorithm. We’ll voluntarily place ourselves at the mercy of thousands of software developers, and also blind chance. We will gain convenience, power and reliability. But we will lose control.”
Personal computers will no longer need to be maintained or customized. Personal assistants, like the iPhone 4s’ Siri, will place our words in context and learn what we “want.” Search algorithms will continue to customize to user attributes and actions.
Is the gain of convenience and reliability that we get from these shiny new toys worth it? Or is the shine just a distraction from the fact that we lose all control in search and technological decision making? I am not so sure the good will be outweighing the bad in this scenario, but I fear that we may be stuck in the cycle.
Andrea Hayden, October 20, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Baseball Embraces SAS Analytics
October 20, 2011
Baseball as an institution is known for its love of numbers. Now it’s embracing analytics. KDNuggets reports more in, “Pittsburgh Pirates tap SAS Analytics.”
The article explains the use of statistics and analytics:
As ‘Moneyball’ has become a valued statistical approach to selecting talent, teams such as the Pittsburgh Pirates are also embracing analytics to improve operations and marketing and build stronger relationships with fans. Using SAS Visual Data Discovery, the Pirates surface a treasure trove of fan insights. The point-and-click interface gives quick entry to advanced analytics from SAS, the leader in business analytics.
The Pirates had previously used Microsoft Excel, but it’s widely known that the application of such flat data is challenging. SAS will now allow the club to analyze everything from attendance to marketing to statistics. Now to get back to that business of actually winning some games . . .
Keep in mind that SAS now has the Teragram text processing technology. You can put words with your numbers.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 20, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Give Your SharePoint Documents an ID Card
October 20, 2011
Endeca Deal Ups Ante in Oracle Fight with HP
October 19, 2011
Today American computer technology corporation Oracle entered into an agreement to purchase Endeca Technologies, a Cambridge MA vendor of software for unstructured data analytics and business intelligence for an undisclosed sum.
Who cares about this deal? Hewlett Packard to name one company. Other organizations will see this as a little known software company which has been absorbed by a far larger database and enterprise software firm. Search is now a bit like Norton Utilities, an add in.
After the deal closes, Oracle allegedly will create a comprehensive technology platform to process, store, manage, search and analyze structured and unstructured information together enabling businesses to make stronger and more profitable decisions.According to the Computer World article, “Oracle Boosts Enterprise Search with Endeca Purchase” Oracle said in a statement:
The purchase will allow Oracle to offer a range of technologies that will help enterprises process, store, search and analyze both structured and unstructured data in an integrated fashion.
Despite the range of customers and products that Endeca brings to the table, we suspect that the amount Oracle paid is probably hefty. Endeca has ingested more than $70 million since the late 1990s. Stephen E Arnold, author of The New Landscape of Search, told me:
Endeca tried to pull off an IPO several years ago. That did not take place. Endeca then raised additional money from Intel and SAP’s venture unit. Endeca was not able to generate the type of revenue Autonomy had achieved. Oracle’s purchase of Endeca complements or complicates the firm’s search and content processing cost situation. Now Oracle has the aging Oracle Text, the somewhat inefficient Secure Enterprise Search 11g system, the InQuira natural language processing system, the TripleHop tagging systems, and the Endeca Guided Navigation system. One thing is certain: consulting and engineering services will be required to herd these different technologies forward in a cohesive manner. Like Hewlett Packard, Oracle may be betting on big companies with an appetite for expensive engineering to make the deal pay, regardless of the price Oracle paid for Endeca. With Microsoft bundling Fast Search with some SharePoint licenses, Oracle’s desire for a high margin, no brainer upsell may be tough to achieve.
We foresee three primary challenges in Oracle’s future:-
- Avoiding the high cost base of supporting and enhancing quite different search technologies. This is a strategy that Autonomy was able to implement, but enterprise software vendor OpenText has not yet been able to make work at Autonomy’s scale.
- Fighting successfully against HP and Autonomy for services revenue in a market where search is a commodity and becoming a component in a larger software system. Exalead has implemented this strategy effectively. Now Oracle and HP will have to differentiate their offerings and maintain margins and fees for search solutions decline. Autonomy has outperformed Endeca for many years in both management acumen and revenue production.
- Finding a way to keep costs under control. Search is an expensive proposition, and Oracle will have to do more than get a Fortune 500 firm to sign on for Endeca’s solution. Oracle will have to boost margins, implement Endeca’s consultative approach to search, and invest in Endeca’s eCommerce, business intelligence, and unstructured data technology. eCommerce may be a tough challenge due to the increasing interest in open source solutions such as eBay’s acquisition of Magenta.
Our question: Who will emerge to challenge Dassault Exalead in search based applications? IBM OmniFind and Watson, an open source vendor, one of the many newcomers to search? Will Endeca’s MBA style approach to consultative engineering pay dividends to Oracle, a company with some US Marines type qualities? Culture shock, anyone?
Stay tuned.
Jasmine Ashton, October 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
D&B Rolls Out D&B Direct
October 19, 2011
After promising last August to help Salesforce build Data.com, a relational database management system, into a service that fills the gaps created by crowdsourcing, Dun & Bradstreet announced, on October 4, that they are building in a new direction, launching a Web Services API called D&B Direct.
D&B Direct is a new application programming interface which makes it possible to access D&B’s business information from any application or platform. The goal is to allow clients to use their own applications to utilize live, professionally researched data on the world’s businesses.
According to the ReadWrite Hack article, Dun & Bradstreet on the Value of Researched vs. Crowdsourced Data Mike Sabin, vice president of sales and marketing solutions for D&B said:
D&B has built out this infrastructure that allows us to identify companies, track them over time, link pieces of data to those companies, and put them in the broader context of their corporate hierarchies, so that you can see the entire picture. I think being able to use those things as ‘coat hangers,’ if you will, on which you can hang additional pieces of information, becomes very important with the coming explosion of data that everybody’s seeing down the pike.
Having applications that can make high value content available for decision makers is a pied piper offering. We still think this technology needs expert human analysts and information professionals to use those promising platforms.
Jasmine Ashton, October 19, 2011
Cloud Computing: With More Options Come More Risks and More Innovation to Combat Potential Issues
October 19, 2011
We all know two of the main concerns involving anything enterprise are security and reliability. These important issues fueled the article What to Do If Your Social Cloud Provider Pulls the Plug, posted by the IBM-sponsored site Internet Evolution.
The article discusses the importance of diversifying in order to minimize risks. Maria Korolov, the author and President of Trombly International, states:
One solution I proposed…was for corporations to set up hybrid clouds – using a private company-owned, behind-the-firewall cloud as an add-on for when you suddenly need more capacity, or as a backup for your own facilities.
Unfortunately many social networking companies don’t allow the exportation of contacts or other secure information, so backing it up via private storage is not possible. She offers some sound advice for alternative ideas.
While I was reading this article, I thought of PolySpot, a company specializing in decision-powered infrastructure and apps, which provides a solution on par with the level of circumspect the author of this article proposes is necessary.
PolySpot can interact with the cloud, create a mirror, and process your content for decisions. Basically, you get the benefit of free and public with the security of an enterprise innovator.
Megan Feil, October 18, 2011
Google Shoes the Next Money Maker?
October 19, 2011
We know the home economics major, the failed Web masters, and the “real” analysts are busy with the Endeca Oracle tie up.
We’re not. Oracle bought a late 1990s technology which requires a ton of services. This move reminded us of three things:
- When the acquisition price is not disclosed, we think that Oracle ponied up some big bucks to get Endeca’s 600 customers, its services business, and the technology that makes the Harvard Business School wiggle with joy
- Oracle is now going to tackle HP and Autonomy with its Oracle database plus Endeca. This should be exciting and create some enterprise marketing excitment. Happy customers? Will that be secondary?
- After $70 million in funding, a stalled IPO, an injection of cash by Intel and SAP Ventures, Endeca is no longer the last remaining 1990s search vendor.
Despite Google’s well designed and ever-impressive logos on their homepage, shoes are not their forte. Well, I suppose we can at least deduct that Evan Steinberg, Google Community Manager for Android has nothing to do with their graphics department, according to Gizmodo’s article, “These Google Designed Nikes Are Proof That Google Has No Taste.”
Yes, Google has a shoe designed with its likeness, if an Internet entity can one of those. The elements range from a snapshot of Larry Page’s face on the tongue, to Google Maps watermarked underneath the swoosh, all the way back to the original exclamation point studded logo.
The Gizmodo article accurately points out the following:
The Nike Air Mags, though not the prettiest shoe, represent a sort of nostalgic geek beauty. These Google designed Nike Dunks though? Just plain fugly. Even the geekiest, worst-dressed Googler would never be caught dead in these.
Hopefully people will see these shoes for what they are, a shoe given to the friend who excessively says “let me Google that” or the family member who is employed by the search engine giant–not any sort of representation of their reputation.
Will Google sneakers be allowed at Oracle?
Megan Feil, October 19, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Gray Lady Does a Sophie Choice to RIF Real Pros
October 19, 2011
Last week, The New York Times announced internally that it will eliminate 20 newsroom positions through “voluntary buyouts instead of firings.” The core business of the Times has always been the print newspaper, yet that business is shrinking. No matter how successful the digital business is, it cannot replace the revenue the print business once had. Business Insider’s “The Incredible Shrinking New York Times Keeps On… Shrinking” tells us more:
Unless the New York Times Company can figure out a way to turn around the print newspaper circulation revenue (highly unlikely), this shrinkage will continue. Even if the online pay wall is wildly successful, it will not replace the circulation and ad revenue the company will lose as print subscribers cancel. And as the print business shrinks, the print cost structure that supports it will have to shrink, too.
The company’s print-ad business has steadily shrunk over the past four years and the future looks wimpy. In the full memo executive editor Jill Abramson sent to staff, she comments that the difficult and uncertain economy has posed a challenge to the company: balancing journalism in the digital age. Online business for the Times is thriving, but without the profitable print business it one had, the future is somewhat less rosy than Google’s.
Andrea Hayden, October 19, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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