Privacy Thunder Clouds Forming for Google
February 3, 2012
I come from the school of thought that when you do ANYTHING on the public Internet, that action will be monitored or will be monitorable. I am okay with this, but I understand some folks are made nervous about predictive modeling, real time analytics, clustering, log file parsing, entity extraction, and data fusion. I suppose folks need to learn what methods are in wide use and do some thinking about what actions online are appropriate for them. I caused a bit of a stir at one of the text analytics programs last year when I shared research results which indicate that online actions can be tweaked using some interesting, but little known, methods. In short, privacy is one of those things that uninformed people talk about. When the conversation involves those who understand nuances of online, the definition of “privacy” needs to be nailed down. Most folks don’t bother. Everyone knows what privacy is, right?
I find the thunderclouds forming and heading toward Google both amusing and somewhat disturbing. There are folks who have been doing more exciting and interesting things with user data for many years. Nope, I won’t provide names. I am not a journalist, although some home economics majors at public relations firms find this fact tough to swallow.
Consider this Reuters news story. Keep in mind that Reuters is part of Thomson Reuters, and it has quite a number of online properties and a significant amount of information about its users. The company acquired ClearForest, at the time one of the leaders in filtering information for flakes of gold. Thomson Reuters also licensed or bought the Lexalytics’ system to do some interesting things with the unstructured text flowing through the Reuters and Thomson systems.
Now navigate to “EU Regulators Want Google to Halt New Privacy Policy.” The news story asserts that the regulators see Google as having a moped. Just hit the brake and stop. Actually Google is more like a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Stopping the darned thing takes planning, time, and quite a bit of work. Toss in a turn and one has to figure out how to get the fishing boats out of the way. When the aircraft carrier is chugging along at cruising speed, sudden maneuvers are not part of the captain’s expected routine. What happens if the stopping or maneuvering goes wrong? Well, check out the Costa cruise captain. He’s under house arrest and easy to find.
Here’s the passage in the news story which I noted:
In light of the above, we call for a pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google’s commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis.” The European commissioner in charge of data protection, Viviane Reding, welcomed the move, saying it was a necessary to establish that EU data rules were being firmly applied. “The Commission therefore calls on Europe’s data protection authorities to ensure that EU law is fully complied with in Google’s new privacy policy,” she said in a statement.
I also found the grace note poignant:
Google said the raising of concerns came as a surprise.
Google has several challenges on its hands. Let me capture them before my addled goose brain awash with weird medications fails me:
- There is the advertising revenue problem; that is, traffic up, spendable dough down. Add to this problem the fact that mobile advertising is not as rich of a golden goose as the 2004 to 2007 online variety, and you have a looming revenue / net profit problem unrelated to Google’s friends in government.
- There are financially and technically capable competitors: Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, among others. Unlike the period from 1998 to 2007, Google now has to cope with marketplace push back and active resistance from competitors with different core competencies.
- There are a broad range of business fronts on which Google is focusing resources. Trimming small scale projects is essentially irrelevant in light of the market sectors in which Google is actively trying to expand market share: mobile, online advertising, enterprise services, and consumer social services. As a result, management’s ability is put to the test and, as the financial results for the last quarter suggest, is stretched.
- Legal challenges abound and some seem to be open ended and add friction to the smooth operation of the company; for example, books and the dispute with Oracle.
The net net is that Google’s scrutiny at privacy may bog down the company even more than its on going activities. Unlike a dollars and cents issue, unease about privacy may end up one of the more costly challenges Google faces. Opportunity cost may outweigh the legal fees associated with the European storm which is racing forward.
Stephen E Arnold, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Searching through the Intranet Jungle
February 3, 2012
Big Data Demands Big Changes in PLM
February 3, 2012
There has been a lot of talk recently about big data and what to do with it especially in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. A recent article in Financial Times, Big Innovation Needs ‘Big Data’, gets right to the heart of the issue and lists exactly what CPG must be willing to do to minimize their extraordinarily high rate of failure in data management as seen in the low success rate of CPGs across the industry.
The answer, according to the article, relies on IT departments being allowed to grab the wheel and take a lesson from marketing companies that have proven that big data is the secret to success. Many steps are required to use big data effectively. The article explains,
“The first is building the necessary infrastructure. This includes defining the data and computing architectures for extracting and analysing the data, and working with third-party sources of big data. It also means making the data available to existing innovation management and product lifecycle management systems so that those that are best able to act upon it, have easy access.”
Second and third in this three step process is “identifying operational processes” and “advocating for proper policies and governance.” Only when all three of the steps are in place can the CPG industry begin seeing the overwhelmingly fruitful benefits of big data.
With economies around the world receiving hit after hit cutting costs at any point in the design and production process can mean the difference between a company staying alive and closing its doors forever. Just like the article explains with very real urgency big data is not going away, will only get bigger, and production and designs companies must take the necessary steps to utilize it. New data management plans designed within product life cycle management plans are the last hope for many.
Catherine Lamsfuss, February 3, 2012
Bridging the Gap of Social Business Needs with SharePoint
February 3, 2012
Social business, social media, anything social and it is written up as a weakness in SharePoint. Widely adopted as a broad solution, SharePoint is not exactly end-user friendly or intuitive. The SharePoint Social blog conquers this very topic in, “39 Solutions for Doing Social Business with SharePoint.”
The author proposes:
Doing Social Business with SharePoint is easy and hard at the same time. Easy, because SharePoint has lot’s of basic social functions build in like mysites, ratings, content tagging, blogs, wikis, noteboards, and more. Just start to use them. Hard, because the basic out of the box functions SharePoint falls short of many end-user expectations around social. Customization or the addition of third-party products is needed.
Agreeing with the author above, customization of SharePoint or a third-party solution must be implemented. However, third-party solutions are a much easier answer to the question than customization. Saving time and costly man-hours, there are many good third party solutions that seamlessly provide SharePoint end users with the added functionality so desperately needed.
One solution that is particularly smart and efficient is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Its suite of solutions solves all the problems listed by our author, including: mobile, website customization, and connectors to other software. Mindbreeze is one solution that works alongside SharePoint but builds connections through an organization’s entire system.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is the leading solution for fast and comprehensive access to corporate-wide knowledge. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise searches all structured and unstructured data (e-mails, documents, contracts, contacts, notes etc.) within seconds and provides all relevant information structured, prioritized and ready for further use. Staff resources are released to concentrate on their actual task.
Read more about the entire suite of Fabasoft Mindbreeze offerings here.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
IBM Helps Electrolux Workers Connect
February 3, 2012
IBM makes a social software sale. Did Watson help or is me-too-ism at work? Writer Darryl K. Taft doesn’t say in “Electrolux Taps IBM for Social Software” at eWeek. Looking to bring its workers in 60 countries together for collaboration, appliance maker Electrolux turned to IBM. The new intranet is based on IBM Connections and, not surprisingly, Microsoft SharePoint.
The write-up reports:
Electrolux employees are using IBM Connections microblogging to quickly spread information across the organization, including new-product and customer care ideas, and strategic organizational announcements. In addition, Electrolux employees will also have access to a social-collaboration dashboard. Through integrating IBM Lotus Notes email and IBM Sametime instant messaging, employees will be able to drag an email into a Connections Activity and discuss with colleagues in that specific window.
Besides enabling teamwork, the software cuts down on space-eating email attachments. There is, of course, also a dashboard feature. Whatever did we do before those were invented? We are still waiting for a public demonstration of Watson, not via television post production.
Cynthia Murrell, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Is Google Ad Revenue Softening?
February 3, 2012
Google could be in trouble, as Business Insider illustrates in “This Chart Shows How Christmas Never Arrived at Google.” The company’s 2011 fourth quarter numbers show its revenues only increased by 25%. Writer Jim Edwards points out that, compared to all other ad-based businesses, that’s actually a good showing. However, the market seems to disagree; Google stock dropped almost nine percent when the news was released.
Edwards has noted a pattern in Google earnings, wherein the company tends to grow little during the first quarter, but makes up for it at Christmas time. Last year, the December surge never occurred. This could be worrisome for Google stakeholders.
There are several possible reasons for the tepid performance. For one thing, the per-click ad rate has been sliding downward. Also, search for the mobile arena, which is still growing and bound to take over the world sooner or later, has provided a lower ad revenue than regular search. Finally, shoppers are now more likely to go directly to a shopping site like Amazon than to Google their potential purchases.
In summary, Edwards observes,
All of the foregoing explains Google’s sudden interest in newspaper advertising, PR stunts such as the Google+ event with David Beckham, and its continued enthusiasm for Google Wallet. . . . Google needs to get Christmas back on track in 2012 — and that means reminding consumers to use its products for shopping.
Hmm. Reminding and enticing are two different things. Can Google do either?
Cynthia Murrell, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
New Oracle E-Book
February 3, 2012
Oracle brews a data latté with cinnamon you may enjoy if you if you suck down this new book. The Salvatoreyc blog presents for download, “Oracle XSQL: Combining SQL, Oracle Text, XSLT and Java to Publish Dynamic Web Content.” The product description states:
Welcome to the exciting world of eXtended Structured Query Language (XSQL). ‘Oracle XSQL: Combining SQL, Oracle Text, XSLT and Java to Publish Dynamic Web Content’ presents a complete approach to building XML Web applications and Web services with XSQL, Oracle Text, SQL, XSLT, and Java from data found in Oracle databases. Companion Web site contains the code examples in the book as well.
Sounds helpful. The download is only available to Media Search members, and the download page takes you right to their signup sheet. Naturally, there is a fee.
Cynthia Murrell, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Recommind Study Says Legal and IT Now Pals
February 3, 2012
Recommind asserts that lawyers and IT can come coexist in a positive manner. Don’t believe it. Well, read the Recommind report and learn how. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Social Media Bringing IT and LEGAL Together, Recommind Study Reveals.”
The report found that both IT and legal departments prioritize eDiscovery. Each has its issues with the other, but most companies seem to understand they must work together to address this important requirement. The article quotes Recommind VP of marketing Craig Carpenter:
While the IT-legal relationship has sometimes been rocky, our third annual survey found encouraging signs that it’s improving. That said, the two will need to do even better over the next few years. Not only will corporate data continue growing at an exponential rate, but the two departments will face new challenges around social media and internal investigations that will force them to be quicker and more proactive than ever before.
See the article for more specifics on the path to productive collaboration. Perhaps it is possible.
In operation since the turn of this century, Recommind crafts predictive information management software for organizations the world over. Their solutions handle eDiscovery, enterprise search, and information governance. Our view is that attorneys and technologists often have difficulty becoming life long pals.
Cynthia Murrell, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Is Google Pushing Plus Too Hard?
February 3, 2012
From the desperation marketing department:
With tongue firmly in cheek, VentureBeat declares, “This Post on Google+ Statistics is a Billion* Times Better than Any Other Post.” Writer Rocky Agrawal can be excused for resorting to sarcasm, for he is righteously angry at Google and other companies who distort the facts to mislead.
Last week, Google CEO Larry Page played up the numbers for Google+. He said the social network has reached 90 million registered users, among other claims. To take that example, Agrawal is right to say Page’s boasting is deceptive; the number includes all those who registered and tried the service a few times, never to return.
The article contains several more examples of Googley distortion, but Agrawal knows that company is not the only one mutilating statistics. He writes:
Using deceiving numbers leads to a race to the bottom where companies use [worse and worse] numbers to look more and more impressive. Companies that want to be forthright can’t — otherwise they look weak and unsuccessful. That’s bad for the startup ecosystem. It also keeps companies focused on vanity metrics to impress the press. That’s largely irrelevant. Startups should spend their time building great products that people want to use, not just sign up for.
He’s right, but good luck enforcing the concept. It’s up to the rest of us to take corporate statements with a grain of salt. Is Google pushing a little to enthusiastically its social service? Interesting question. We think about Google as search and advertising, not social and advertising.
Cynthia Murrell, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Thomson Reuters Get Social
February 2, 2012
If you don’t association Thomson Reuters and social, you are not alone. Fresh from the innovative print magazine for the consumers at the World Economic Forum, Thomson Reuters is going social. You can check out the service at the Reuters Social site. According to “Introducing Reuters Social Pulse,”
Today we launched Social Pulse, our new social media hub on Reuters.com designed to show you the most talked-about news, companies and influencers across the Web. The first thing you’ll see on the page is the news most popular in Reuters social network.
Interesting. One question comes to mind, “How will this generate money to get the $13 billion dollar outfit growing and producing enough cash to pay dividends, debts coming due, and the costs of innovations like the social site and, of course, the consumer magazine for Davos types?”
Stephen E Arnold, February 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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