Google Fixes Maps in 15 Minutes
October 15, 2011
Let’s say that an address or landmark is wrong on Google Maps and someone, somewhere uses Google Map Maker to fix it. How long does it take to show up in Google Maps? And how long does it take to populate out into all the embedded Google Maps around the world that are powered by the Google Maps API, the most popular API in the world? According to the company this week, it now takes as little as fifteen minutes.
Now that’s customer service. Lots of competition in mobile apps, especially in maps, drives Google to keep refresh rates very high, and update times very short. To stay dominant in this market, Google has to stay fast.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 15, 2011
Microsoft Pushes Toward or Beyond Google
October 14, 2011
As part of its recent Microsoft Research roadshow, Microsoft officials talked up ‘Tiger,’ Bing’s next-generation index-serving platform. Tiger, jointly developed by Microsoft Research and Microsoft’s Search Technology Center in Asia, uses solid-state disk technology to improve Bing’s search performance and relevance… But there’s more to Binging than just the index server. Another key component of Microsoft’s search service is ‘Cosmos’ . . . Cosmos is the cloud storage and computational engine that powers all of Microsoft’s Online Services, including Bing.
A concerted effort is being made to improve Bing’s behind-the-scenes function. Various aspects of Bing have been lauded by the tech community, but Google still holds a lion’s share of the market. Speaking of lion, Microsoft should know better than to name a product Tiger. Mac already owns that space in the tech lexicon.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 14, 2011
FAST Error Message – Makes No Sense
October 14, 2011
A blog devoted to SharePoint and related technologies is shedding light on SharePoint’s failure to handle error messaging. In, “FAST Post Setup Configuration Failed,” several weaknesses of the SharePoint error messaging system are discussed.
The author states,
In one of my recent FAST implementations to a large Government Organization in Western Australia, I faced numerous interesting issues and would like to share them with the SharePoint community [sic] in my next few articles. In my viewpoint, even though FAST is a very powerful and useful component when it comes to integration with SharePoint, it need some major improvements, fixes and specially better error handling.
FAST needs to take another look at their error messaging system. In the meantime, users struggling with less-than-helpful messages may find this article quite helpful.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 14, 2011
Beating the Panda Once More
October 14, 2011
I wrote a blog post in 2009 that offered up some of my own suggested guidelines for Google in handling reconsideration requests. I’m still convinced this could work:The penalized Webmaster fully and truthfully completes a reconsideration request Wizard, which walks you through the Google webmaster guidelines & identifies compliance issues.
- Google immediately acknowledges receipt of the request and has 10 business days to respond.
- The response, at minimum, informs the webmaster what areas of his site do not conform to the guidelines and what penalty has been assessed.
- Google informs the webmaster that his penalty will be removed within X days/weeks/months after coming into compliance.
Is that really too much to ask? I don’t think so.
Palantir Raises Additional $70 Million
October 14, 2011
While the company declined to reveal the valuation in the round, we’ve learned from sources that it is around $2.5 billion. Two unnamed New York-based hedge funds anchored the round, and multiple early investors and university endowments participated in the round . . . Palantir told us last year that revenues have at least doubled every year for the last three years. And in the company’s last round last year (in which it raised $90 million), its valuation was pegged at $735 million; so clearly the company has taken a big jump in value in the past year.
This is clearly a lot of money. We have to ask: Palantir, what’s with the burn rate?
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 15, 2011
Attention! Attention! Another SharePoint 2010 Update Package
October 14, 2011
Without going into details about the content and fixes in the August 2011 CU there is one other thing that is of real interest – and that is how MIcrosoft has changed the packaging process for the Cumulative Updates. Since the release of SharePoint 2010 there has been talk and discussions about über-packages. That is Server Cumulative Packages that contains both the Server hotfixes as well as the Foundation hotfixes, which makes the update process a bit easier and faster – you only need to install one package. Up until now there has been mixed messages on the über-packages and caused some confusion. The recommendation has been that you need to install both SPF and SPS CU’s on a SPS installation and all three if you’re using Project Server.
Tax Tips for Every Man from the GOOG
October 14, 2011
Interesting tax tip and a great quote. I noted the information in “IRS Auditing How Google Shifted Profits Offshore to Avoid Taxes.” I am no tax man. I am a taxed man. I am on the look out for tips. So here’s the tax tip for every man:
Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, has cut its worldwide tax bill by about $1 billion a year using a pair of strategies called the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich,” which move profits through units in Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda. Google reported an effective tax rate of 18.8 percent in the second quarter, less than half the average combined U.S. and state statutory rate of 39.2 percent.
And the quote. Not as good as “We’re from the government and we are here to help you. Just darn close:
“This is a routine inquiry,” said Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google.
Yep, routine. Nothing better to do.
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Amazon Dust Bunnies
October 13, 2011
The addled goose has a bum eye, more air miles than a 30 something IBM sales engineer, and lousy Internet connectivity. T Mobile’s mobile WiFi sharing gizmo is a door stop. Imagine my surprise when I read “Google Engineer: “Google+ Example of Our Complete Failure to Understand Platforms.” In one webby write up, the dust bunnies at Google and Amazon were moved from beneath the bed to the white nylon carpet of a private bed chamber.
I am not sure the information in the article is spot on. Who can certain about the validity of any information any longer. The goose cannot. But the write up reveals that Amazon is an organization with political “infighting”. What’s new? Nothing. Google, on the other hand, evidences a bit of reflexivity. I will not drag the Motorola Mobility event into this brief write up, but students of business may find that acquisition worth researching.
Here is the snippet which caught my attention:
[A] high-profile Google engineer … mistakenly posted a long rant about working at Amazon and Google’s own issues with creating platforms on Google+. Apparently, he only wanted to share it internally with everybody at Google, but mistaken shared it publicly. For the most part, [the] post focuses on the horrors of working at Amazon, a company that is notorious for its political infighting. The most interesting part to me, though, is … [the] blunt assessment of what he perceives to be Google’s inability to understand platforms and how this could endanger the company in the long run.
I want to step back. In fact, I want to go into MBA Mbit mode.
First, this apparent management behavior is the norm in many organizations, not the companies referenced in the post.I worked for many years in the old world of big time consulting. Keep in mind that my experiences date from 1973, but management idiosyncrasies were the rule. The majority of these management gaffes took place in a slower, not digital world. Sure, speed was important. In the physics of information speed is relative. Today the perceived velocity is great and the diffusion of information adds a supercharger to routine missteps. Before getting too excited about the insights into one or two companies, most organizations today are perilously close to dysfunction. Nothing special here, but today’s environment gives what is normal some added impact. Consolidation and an absence of competition makes the stakes high. Bad decisions add a thrill to the mundane. Big decisions weigh more and can have momentum that does more quickly than a bad decision in International Harvester or NBC in the 1970s.
Second, technology invites bad decisions. Today most technologies are “hidden”, not exposed like the guts of a Model T or my mom’s hot wire toaster which produced one type of bagel—burned. Not surprisingly, even technically sophisticated managers struggle to understand the implications of a particular technical decision. To make matters worse, senior mangers have to deal with “soft” issues and technical training, even if limited, provide few beacons for the course to chart. Need some evidence. Check out the Hewlett Packard activities over the last 18 months. I routinely hear such statements as “we cannot locate the invoice” and “tell us what to do.” Right. When small things go wrong, how can the big things go right? My view is that chance is a big factor today.
Third, the rush to make the world social, collaborative, and open means that leaks, flubs, sunshine, and every other type of exposure is part of the territory.. I find it distressing that sophisticated organizations fall into big pot holes. As I write this, I am at an intelligence conference, and the rush to openness has an unexpected upside for some information professionals. With info flowing around without controls, the activities of authorities are influenced by the info bonanza. Good and bad guys have unwittingly created a situation that makes it less difficult to find the footprints of an activity. The post referenced in the source article is just one more example of what happens when information policies just don’t work. Forget trust. Even the technically adept cannot manage individual communications. Quite a lesson I surmise.
In search and content processing,the management situation is dire. Many companies are uncertain about pricing,features, services, and innovation. Some search vendors describe themselves with nonsense and Latinate constructions. Other flip flop for search to customer support to business intelligence without asking themselves, “Does this stuff actually work?” Many firms throw adjectives in front of jargon and rely on snake charming sales people to close deals. Good management or bad management? Neither. We are in status quo management with dollops of guessing and wild bets.
My take on this dust bunny matter is that we have what may be an unmanageable and ungovernable situation. No SharePoint governance conference is going to put the cat back in the bag. No single email, blog post, or news article will make a difference. Barn burned. Horse gone. Wal-Mart is building on the site. The landscape has changed. Now let the “real” consultants explain the fix. Back to the goose pond for me. Collaborate on that.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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OpenText Ups Management Horsepower
October 13, 2011
OpenText announces its appointment of Kamran Kheirolomoom to Senior Vice President and General Manager of its BPM business. The entire press release can be accessed here: “OpenText Appoints Kamran Kheirolomoom to Lead its BPM Business.”
The press release discusses the appointment:
Kheirolomoom, who joins the company from Serena Software, will be responsible for driving OpenText’s aggressive strategy in BPM and dynamic case management solutions. OpenText has moved quickly this year to build a leading portfolio of BPM solutions, acquiring Metastorm in February and Global360 in July. The combination brings complementary capabilities, and accelerates the company’s investment in leading content and process solutions. According to Gartner, the BPM market was $1.9 billion in 2009, growing 15 percent that year.
We have to ask, when will OpenText’s various findability systems be integrated? We will keep an eye out to see if Kheirolomoom is willing to make that move.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 13, 2011
Can the Sum of Digital Media be Classified?
October 13, 2011
The ALRC Discussion Paper released today contains 44 proposals relating to a proposed new National Classification Scheme. It suggests that at its heart will sit a new Classification of Media Content Act. It will identify what content needs to be classified, who should do it, and who has responsibility for breaches of the guidelines.
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