Google Gobbles Global Ad Market
December 15, 2011
Peter Kafka of AllThingsD highlighted a chart that pegs Google’s share of the overall Web ad market at 44 percent in the article, “The Rise of Google, The Ascent of Facebook, and the Decline of Everyone Else.”
According to Kafka, aside from 2009, Google’s portion of the ad market has been steadily increasing for years and has since left former competitors: Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL in the dust. Facebook on the other hand, is just entering into the web ad market so it is difficult to predict where unpredictable social media goliath is headed.
The article asserts:
Based on everything we’ve heard this year, the 2011 column will look just like the ones preceding it. Except it might show even steeper gains for both Google and Facebook, given the moves both are making (YouTube and display ads for Google, new tricks like ‘Sponsored Stories,’ plus the overwhelming attractiveness of an 800 million user base for Facebook).
It is no secret that Google takes up a large percentage of global spending and that Yahoo, and AOL have been slowly declining for years. I would like see where, true Google competitors, Amazon and Apple stand in ad spending.
Jasmine Ashton, December 15, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Grasp Your SharePoint Workflows and Evaluate Productivity
December 14, 2011
“Typically, the third party ISVs don’t replicate what SharePoint does, they extend it. So you can identify the “boundaries” of out-of-box functionality by seeing what the ISVs do!”
Duties of the Project Manager
December 14, 2011
What is the modern role of a project manager? The article “Product Management and Solution Design” explores their ever-changing responsibilities and the function of the position. The focus is simply what the project manager should and should not be doing.
According to the article:
The basic role of a project manager is to “generate value for their companies by finding market problems that potential customers will pay to solve, and then leading the process of finding a feasible and compelling solution.”
However, it is not their job to design the solution. The articles goes on to say that “[i]t is far different to find-and then define- a market problem than it is to figure out the best way to solve it.”
Though the article points out some very useful ideas, it neglects to take into account the rapidly increasing need for an engineering and business centric findability system. Such a system would again evolve the role of the project manager. Inforbix has the solution today. They provide what you need for product data, without the data management. It is something every project manager should check out.
Jennifer Wensink, December 13, 2011
Thumbs Up for ReadCube Web Reader
December 14, 2011
Google’s new news reader, which strikes us as a “me too” type product, is getting lots of attention.
We’ve found a nifty tool that lets you interact with your PDFs. Designed for researchers, ReadCube Web Reader lets you highlight and add notes to PDF documents. It also helps you find articles through a search feature that accesses Google Scholar, PubMed, or any library of documents that you import. I could wish for more search options, but perhaps they’re on the way; it’s still in beta, after all.
The application learns your interests over time, and will suggest online articles published within a specified time frame. It will even go find more information about your article, if it’s available.
The folks at Labtiva, who developed the software, aim to “make the world of research more accessible and connected.” On the startup’s about page, we learned from the write up:
Our mission is to improve the pace of scientific discovery. ReadCube was started by a researcher and a computer scientist to address the challenges faced by scientists. What started in a Harvard College dorm room as a tool to help organize and find scientific papers quickly turned into something rather more.
Now the team has expanded beyond the Boston area and hopes their innovation will help researchers around the globe.
I downloaded the beta version and played with it a bit. It’s intuitive and sports a clean design. I’m curious to see what it will decide my interests are after I’ve imported some more articles. It’s definitely handy to be able to highlight and make notes right on the PDF, rather than creating a separate Word document.
Kudos to the Labtiva team; let’s see where they go from here.
Cynthia Murrell, December 12, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Surfing for Leisure and Search
December 14, 2011
The Web is the new equivalent of flipping through TV stations when there’s nothing better to do. The Washington Post reports, “Yep Pew Study Conforms Most Young Adults Go Online for No Good Reason at All.” The Pew study was conducted from July 25 to August 26 and polled 2,260 American adults. We learned from the write up:
“The report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that on any given day, 53 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds go online just to have fun or pass time. That should explain all those kitten videos. Indeed. Not surprisingly, going online for fun or to pass the time is related to the survey-takers’ ages. Only 12% of those over 65 did so the previous day, and 27% of those ages 50 – 64.
Though many of us use the Internet as a tool for work and research, perhaps that’s being too serious. Why “do” something with intent? Just kick back and click. The path to continuous leisure and entitlements– the future is here.
Our view is that the use of an app to find information in the context of a graphic experience is less of a leap forward than a step backwards. Casual information access is the core of the consumerization of information technology. We just call it “dumbing down information access.”
Cynthia Murrell, December 14, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search-Driven Web Content
December 14, 2011
Web content management deserves attention and planning when evaluating your company’s online business model. William Saville at CMS Wire discusses all the angles that need to be evaluated in, “SharePoint 2010 As a Web Delivery Platform.” Search-based experiences are becoming more valuable in the overall online experience. Users want to quickly find the content that is relevant to them, without wading through irrelevant hits.
Everyone is talking about search-driven experiences that enable easier discovery of content and make content personal and relevant to the end user. The business case is quite simple. The quicker people can find what they are looking for on a website, the more likely they are to engage and take an interest one step further. Using the search technology that is baked into SharePoint, as well as FAST search (which can be implemented on top of SharePoint), it is possible to provide end users with powerful search-based experiences.
We think this is one area in particular where a third-party alternative to SharePoint excels, specifically Fabasoft Mindbreeze. The Austrian-based company offers a suite of solutions that serve as alternatives to SharePoint or work alongside a SharePoint installation, improving its performance. Its InSite product adds meaning to website search.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is our product to empower websites with professional high-end search cababilities. We offer InSite as a Cloud service and for on premise installation. Today, I would like to show how you can adapt the search-experience by defining views. Views allow you to group search results by search queries. It’s a really great and simple concept and you can adapt your search results without any need for server configuration. The following 5 scenarios should get you started on the topic . . .
The Mindbreeze InSite solution offers metadata, filters, grouping by product, and content-based views to name a few options. The search is intuitive and results are relevant and fast. See if InSite might be a beneficial addition to your online business model.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 14, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Desktop Search: A Rusty Anchor?
December 14, 2011
Perhaps the papers aren’t doomed after all. Online Media Daily reports, “Newspapers’ Mobile Traffic Surges.” Perhaps the move to mobile apps will save journalism. The article cites a report from the Newspaper Association of America. We learned from the write up:
More than 20 newspaper publishers found that page views for mobile content increased 65% in September, compared to the same month a year ago. Many papers reported triple-digit page view jumps across their mobile offerings, the NAA said. A Pew study also released in October found that users were more likely to trust apps that came from preferred news organizations.
But, is this paid content or free? Probably some of each. It’s in the advertising, though, that newspapers will reap the rewards of venturing into the mobile arena.
This sounds like good news for the papers, but I’m afraid the nature of mobile will cost us in accuracy; this is more evidence that search is officially smaller and less inviting for cross checking and validation.
We read the data differently. Desktop searching is a rusty boat anchor. What about in depth research? Mired in the muddy bottom we fear.
Cynthia Murrell, December 14, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Jungle Logic? How about Jungle Growth?
December 13, 2011
Let me be upfront. I am not a professional writer. I am not a “real” journalist or story-telling consultant. I am a semi retired person living in rural Kentucky. I know my limits, and I know when another is testing those limits.
I read in the dead tree edition of The New York Times this morning (December 13, 2011), an article on page A 29, “Amazon’s Lost Jungle.” The author is Richard Russo. I looked him up in Bing and learned that he is a “real” writer. You can get more information about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Russo. I was disappointed that the dead tree edition of the New York Times did not include some basic information about the author, but that’s what sets dead tree publishers apart from the faux folks who write in blogs like Beyond Search. I am supposed to know Mr. Russo. I told you I had limits.
Amazon has been making headlines. First, there was the Kindle Fire, which was supposed to be an Apple iPod killer. The gizmo is an okay reader. The “iPad killer” part is a non starter. Second, there has been a flurry of information on podcasts, including Adam Carolla’s comedy program, about Amazon’s offering authors money to publish a book with Amazon in place of a New York outfit. Third, there’s The New York Times’s article by Mr. Russo.
I want to focus on that write up.
The hook for Amazon’s Lost Jungle is the cash back for buying from Amazon, not a brick and mortar store front. There are not many of those left in Harrod’s Creek. WalMart, Costco, and BestBuy took care of that. What the big boxes did not crush, Kroger and convenient stores mostly eliminated. Need a vacant store front? Harrod Creek’s for you.
The article recounts via quotations from authors various views of the shift from paper to digital content. The observations are interesting, and I quite liked the phrase “scorched earth capitalism.” Here’s the passage I marked with a question mark:
Like just about everybody I’ve talked to about it, I first attributed Amazon’s price-comparison app to arrogance and malevolence, but there’s also something bizarrely clumsy and wrong-footed about it. Critics may appear weak today, but they may not be tomorrow, and if the wind shifts, Amazon’s ham-fisted strategy has the potential to morph into a genuine Occupy Amazon movement. And even if the company is lucky and that doesn’t happen, what has it really gained? The fickle gratitude of people who will have about as much loyalty to Amazon tomorrow as they do today to Barnes & Noble, last year’s bully? This is good business? Is it just me, or does it feel as if the Amazon brass decided to spend the holidays in the Caribbean and left in charge of the company a computer that’s fallen head over heels in love with its own algorithms?
I think, just guessing I suppose, that Amazon is “bad” somehow. Amazon is successful because people find value in what the firm does. Is Amazon supposed to behave differently with regard to books. In its own way, Amazon is just doing what comes naturally to 21st century, information based companies.
I have three observations:
- Amazon is going to get bigger and more invasive. Mr. Bezos has a vision which may be as all encompassing as the Apple or Google view of what the firms can accomplish.
- Books are going to face an uphill battle. I know that in certain demographics books are hot tamales, but in certain demographics so are vinyl records. Unfortunately the big world of money is not based on looking at the world through niche colored glasses.
- Consumers in the US are into video. Now I know that I like books, but I am old and woefully out of step with the 20 somethings with whom I am sometimes forced to work. The world is video and embedded devices which pump connectivity direct to the brain. Watch for it in the next 10 years.
The “jungle logic” is not operative in the digital world. Think in terms of natural monopolies which attempt to embrace broad expanses of information, information services, and content outputs. The law of the jungle is a lion eats man thing. The law of the digital Amazon is closer to uncontrolled cellular growth colonizing a host. Without meaningful regulation and management common sense, we are looking at some unpleasant, large, and ultimately unhealthy growths. Call the doctor. I just went to voicemail and I have to listen because the menu choices have changed.
Stephen E Arnold, December 13, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Adaptation Mandatory for Enterprise Teams in 2012
December 13, 2011
The list of Gartner predictions is out for 2012. The theme? Adapt or be replaced. CMS Wire provides all the details in, “Gartner: 10 Predictions for 2012, IT Departments to Adapt or be Swept Aside.”
“According to Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner fellow, the primary characteristic of IT next year will be fluidity, and where that fluidity does not exist, IT departments will be replaced by business managers who see the economy of cloud computing and the value of moving their IT requirements there . . . Devices that are easier to use, combined with more intuitive software, as well as the acceleration towards cloud computing, means that IT will have less responsibility than before.”
Two implications: one, IT teams need to prove their worth when it comes to enterprise, but they need to do it in a way that improves the user experience. Two, they need to find the right solution that ensures that employees maintain high productivity and quality search results. This brings us to another conjecture from the Gartner findings:
“And to add insult to injury, it looks like IT organizations are going to be held responsible when organizations are not able to extract full meaning out of their growing amount of data and when businesses miss out on key opportunities.”
We think that a quality solution is the key to all of the potential IT woes in 2012. One suite of solutions we like is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. They excel in assigning meaning to results in a way that others, namely SharePoint, lack.
“There are several ways to connect with standard and even highly customized line of business applications. An effective information access tool needs to facilitate users’ access to all of these content sources while preserving value and context of each information object and knowledge asset.”
Will there be challenges in the new year? Yes, there always are. But choose the right solution and meet those challenges head on.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 9,2011
Sponsored by: Pandia.com
The Contested Fact: Sharepoint Has Social Media Potential
December 13, 2011
“They’ve [Microsoft] built a decent platform for lightweight file-oriented collaboration …but SharePoint only provides two of the 10 or 11 key applications enterprises are looking for in a social platform.”
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