Search and Why People Quit
March 14, 2012
I saw two headlines which initially did not ring my chimes. I scanned “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” Pretty tame stuff, particularly when I get the name dropping and the baloney; for example:
It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.
These assertions about the “golden past” were chopped from the same species of corporate pig as the “nothing worthwhile comes easy” from the mid 1970s at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Companies create myths in order to shape the hearts and minds of the new hires. The “culture” is more important than family, free time, vacations, and apple pie. Then the money makes it clear that the outfit is pretty much about money, making lots of it and convincing one another how smart those lucky enough to work at the firm really are.
I found the obligatory “wake up call to the board of directors” indicative of the mind set which gets a person hired in the first place.
The second story was “Why I Left Google.” The write up is oinking from a similar pen. However, there was a nuance which caught my attention. The Google write up, therefore, has more protein on the back ribs. Here’s the passage:
Under Eric Schmidt ads were always in the background. Google was run like an innovation factory, empowering employees to be entrepreneurial through founder’s awards, peer bonuses and 20% time. Our advertising revenue gave us the headroom to think, innovate and create.
I had never thought of Eric Schmidt as a “real” manager. But there was another factoid or assertionoid to be accurate. Here you go:
It turns out that there was one place where the Google innovation machine faltered and that one place mattered a lot: competing with Facebook. Informal efforts produced a couple of antisocial dogs in Wave and Buzz. Orkut never caught on outside Brazil. Like the proverbial hare confident enough in its lead to risk a brief nap, Google awoke from its social dreaming to find its front runner status in ads threatened. Google could still put ads in front of more people than Facebook, but Facebook knows so much more about those people. Advertisers and publishers cherish this kind of personal information, so much so that they are willing to put the Facebook brand before their own. Exhibit A: www.facebook.com/nike, a company with the power and clout of Nike putting their own brand after Facebook’s? No company has ever done that for Google and Google took it personally.
Ah, has, ego in the heart of the numerical machine. In my study and work in and around things Googley, the human element never caught my attention. Now I am going to have to think about how a giant corporation reacts when another commercial firm gets trounced in a real life NCAA play off.
One final thought: why are these folks quitting? My hunch is that neither really knows. At age 67 I know what I do, why I do it, how I do it, and for whom I do it. I hope both of these wizards can look beyond their skirmishes with reality.
I would like to run a query for that concept, but as you know, search is not so good unless sponsored by an outfit with enough dough to put “relevant” results before me. I will query “Faustian bargain.”
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Something Is Missing from The SharePoint Experience
March 14, 2012
Climbing the Complexities of SharePoint
March 14, 2012
Although the fine art of rock climbing is lost of me, a good analogy is a well-known educational tool for taking a complicated concept and making it more readily applicable. Jussi on SharePoint uses the technique in, “Five reasons why SharePoint is like rock climbing.”
The author lays out the analogy:
Rock climbing differs a lot from other traditional sports I did as a teenager in that you need an equal amount of physical strength, technical skills and mental capabilities. If you possess insane core strength and sky-high stamina but lack the mental abilities, it will hinder your evolution as a climber. In more than one ways rock climbing is so similar to doing SharePoint implementations that I decided to list out five of the most evident feats they share.
The author goes on to describe similarities: planning a route is essential, and just as in climbing the quality and currency of your gear is equally valuable for SharePoint installations. The author also highlights the importance of working smarter, not harder. Regarding this last point, working smarter instead of harder, a third-party solution can greatly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an existing SharePoint installation. We like Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its enterprise offerings.
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.
Check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its suite of smart solutions to see if your organization can begin to work smarter instead of harder.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Going Green with Lifecycle Management
March 14, 2012
It’s March and everything is going green, including many businesses. Sky, a company who makes set top boxes for televisions, is using lifecycle analysis to reduce its environmental footprint. Business Green discusses this initiative in their article, “Sky Believes in Better Environmental Outcomes Through Product Lifecycle Management”.
Sky is analyzing “its reliance on the rare earth or conflict minerals used” in their products. Jo Fox, head of their Bigger Picture program, “revealed she is now keen to address the product’s whole lifecycle impact.”
“We’re doing some lifecycle analysis on our boxes and it’s not just about rare mineral,” she said. “It’s quite all-encompassing about things like conflict minerals. We are not using large quantities in any box, but there will be certain minerals that we rely on, just like any other electronics. We’re looking at all of that as part of our responsible sourcing and lifecycle analysis. I’m very much moving away from just managing energy to lifecycle analysis.”
Sky looks to continue to continue to reduce its “reliance on those materials that have a high environmental impact” once they complete their analysis.
Product lifecycle management is helping numerous companies “go green” while saving time and money. For instance, Inforbix has developed a fresh new approach to data access. They have changed the way manufacturers find, reuse and share product data. This allows companies to focus on environmental issues while still spending less time and making more money.
Jennifer Wensink, March 14, 2012
Attensity Election Forecasts
March 14, 2012
Is the prediction half right or half wrong? Sci-Tech Today seems to opt for optimism with “Twitter Analysis Gets Elections Half Right.” Attensity attempted to demonstrate its social analytics chops by forecasting Super Tuesday Republican Primary results using Twitter tweets. Their predictions were about 50% accurate; isn’t that about what you’d get flipping coins?
A lack of location data seems to be the reason Attensity’s predictions were less precise than hoped. Writer Scott Martin reveals:
Part of the problem lies in a lack of location-based data about Twitter users’ tweets. Such information is ‘scarce’ on Twitter, says Michael Wu, principal scientist of analytics for Lithium, a social-analytics firm. That’s because Twitter users would have to turn on the ‘location’ feature in their mobile devices. A vast pool of location-based tweets would enable analytics experts to better connect tweets to where they come from across the nation. In the case of Super Tuesday, that would mean more localized information on tweets about candidates.
Another roadblock to accurate prediction lies in identifying when multiple tweets come from the same enthusiastic tweeter, or are spam-like robo-tweets. Furthermore, there is no ready way to correlate the expression of opinions with actions, like actually voting. It seems that this analytic process has a long way to go. It also seems that half right is close enough to spin marketing horseshoes.
Serving several big-name clients, Attensity provides enterprise-class social analytics as well as industry solutions for vertical markets. They pride themselves on the accuracy and ease of use of their tools. My thought is that I will pick horses the old fashioned way.
Cynthia Murrell, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PR Push for Azaleos and Fast Search
March 14, 2012
My email overflowed this morning with descriptions of Azaleos, its expertise in Microsofty stuff, and Fast Search. I am on the ball with regard to Fast Search, its legal back story, and the issues associated with getting the system to deliver useful results to users on time and on budget. You will find the Azaleos blog quite interesting. I noted no recent postings about Fast Search. For some current information about the search system, you may want to check out this Beyond Search write up. I ran a query using the Azaleos search system and got three hits about Fast Search. The coverage of search suggests that Azaleos may be succumbing to a communications expert’s inputs about how to sell search services.
What was new was the statement in MSPmentor’s “Azaleos Cloud Gets Microsoft Fast Search Server 2010”. How does a Microsoft partner “get” Fast Search? I don’t know. Maybe pay a fee? Here’s the passage I noted:
…the company’s Managed Enterprise Search solution addresses a different need. It gives enterprises the ability to remotely design, configure, monitor and manage FAST Search Server 2010. According to Azaleos, the development is big news for its customers because the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 can perform searches in “an interactive and visual format,” in addition to the basic search functions that the Microsoft SharePoint Server provides. The FAST Search Server is a high-visibility solution, which brings its own set of complex issues to the table for enterprise IT departments. But Azaleos claims its Managed Enterprise Search solution eliminates the challenges associated with high visibility applications and can keep the FAST Search Server available and running at top speed.
My thoughts after reading this included:
- There is an implicit assumption that Microsoft’s cloud search will be Fast centric. My own view of this is that the assumption may be out of kilter. The reasons include performance, extensibility, and customization. Fast Search can be turned into a capable performer, but the “cloud” angle implies a certain standardization of features. So of Fast Search’s vast capabilities what will the core service do? Keywords, clustering, linguistic analysis, entity extraction, sentiment analysis, relationship mapping, etc. My point is that customers may want all of these functions and that suggests the Fast Search from Azaleos may be very different from the Fast Search marketing collateral’s assertions.
- Can Azaleos maintain an “interactive and visual format” when the content throughput increases. The challenge of keeping indexes fresh equates to resources. Resources, in my experience, cost money. The fix may be to gate how much data are processed in order to keep the fees acceptable to customers. Price spikes are not encouraging to some licensees in my experience.
- The assertion of “available and running at top speed” is an interesting one. My thought was, “Relative to what?” Are we comparing a small corpus with weekly index refreshes or are we talking about 100 million documents refreshed in near real time? I am not sure Fast in an on premises installation with original Fast engineers babysitting the hugely complex system with often unexpected dependencies can be a challenge to keep perking along at optimum performance levels.
I want to watch how this business unfolds. After all, a PR blitz which puts several stories in front of me signals some real enthusiasm on the part of the Azaleos stakeholders.
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PDF Search from Dieselpoint
March 14, 2012
We heard Dieselpoint offers a PDF search engine, so we decided to check it out. This company keeps a very low profile, but we find it is worth looking into.
Dieselpoint’s PDF Search is an enterprise product that can navigate large collections of PDFs, extracting both metadata and text for indexing. Metadata can be searched and used to build more sophisticated interfaces in conjunction with Dieselpoint’s Search platform.
Often, titles are left out of a document’s metadata, making searches more challenging; Dieselpoint has an innovative solution for that. The product overview states:
Quite often, authors of PDFs neglect to enter titles into the document’s metadata. This makes it difficult to display a good, descriptive title when a PDF appears on a search results page. Dieselpoint Search eliminates this problem by providing ‘Smart Titles’. The system analyzes each PDF looking for clues as what the title might be, and employs advanced heuristics to select one. Studies show that Dieselpoint’s algorithm selects a title which is the same as the one that a human would have selected over 90% of the time.
This tool also takes advantage of XMP data, which resides in an XML file embedded within a PDF file. This data can contain information on subjects such as authors, digital rights, categories, and keywords.
Dieselpoint began developing the core indexing algorithms behind its search engine in 1999, and released version 1.0 the next year. Originally meant for use with engineered industrial goods, the product (and company) name reflects these origins.
Cynthia Murrell, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Why Read? Images Are Stronger
March 14, 2012
I came across an article about the value of Facebook profile pictures as opposed to text, and was amazed by the new research that shows that words simply do not matter; it is all about image.
“With the Right Photo, Your Facebook Text Profile Hardly Matters,” covers a couple of studies by Brandon Van Der Heide and two other Ohio State graduate students. The studies look into how people make impressions of others on social networking sites, and it seems that is primarily done through photos.
Apparently, people already have certain expectations of the photos they view on social networking. We expect people to highlight successes and social activities. The study went on to show that if a photo fits what someone expects to see, then the rest of the profile doesn’t have much impact on the viewer. If it doesn’t fit what they expect, that is when people will decide to look closer at what you wrote. The article continues:
Van Der Heide [lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University] said he believes the results apply beyond Facebook to dating websites and other social networking sites. It should also apply to other traits beyond extraversion and introversion, such as social desirability and even political orientation. It all depends on what is shown in the photographs, and what clues viewers can glean from them.
According to the research, when people use text or photos alone to build an impression, text will typically have a greater influence. As more businesses head to social networking to build strategic relationships and strengthen customer bases, this is something that should be kept in mind. Be sure to highlight exactly what you want the customer to take away at first glance, because that may be the only glance you get.
Andrea Hayden, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
More on the Yahoo Facebook Matter
March 13, 2012
I posted a comment about the Reuters’ take on the Yahoo matter. To Reuters’ credit, the reporter connected Yahoo’s action against Google with Yahoo’s action toward Facebook. The Reuters’ story included the fact that Yahoo was using the same legal team.
I just read “Yahoo Sues Facebook for Patent Infringement, Which Social Network Calls “Puzzling” (Including Filing).” The most useful part of the write up was the direct link to the legal “complaint”.
I wanted to capture my thoughts before my short attention span moves forward:
First, the four Yahoo patents which I find interesting are:
- US6907566, “Method and System for Optimum Placement of Advertisements on a Webpage,” June 14, 2005, filed April 2, 1999. An Overture invention.
- US7100111, “Method and System for Optimum Placement of Advertisements on a Webpage,” August 29, 2006, filed February 14, 2003. An Overture invention.
- US7373599, “Method and System for Optimum Placement of Advertisements on a Webpage,” May 13, 2008, filed February 14, 2003. An Overture invention.
- US7668861, “System and Method to Determine the Validity of an Interaction on a Network,” February 23, 2010, filed September 20, 2007. A Yahoo invention.
The Overture inventions are quite interesting, and I think embrace some approaches which those younger than I assume are “textbook” recipes. Overture was ahead of the pay for placement and online advertising surge. In fact, when I learned about pay for placement, I was quite annoyed. The shift marked the end of precision, recall, and “traditional” assumptions about what results would match a search query. I was correct. Search results in the ad-supported arena are and seem likely to remain unsatisfactory for me. The Yahoo invention was added to the Overture patents in order to show that Yahoo is really a leader in online. I think the company’s trajectory over between 2002 to the present suggests that it is a on a path that tracks below my benchmarks for online success.
Second, the Yahoo filing resonates with the theme of “The Way We Were”. Poignant, bittersweet, and just plain bitter. Here’s the passage I noted from page 4 of the complaint:
Yahoo’s research and development has only grown since its inception. Since 1=997, Yahoo has filed thousands of applications for patens on innovative computing technologies that it has developed. Every year, Yahoo spends hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development so that it can offer its users the most innovative products.
As I have noted in my writings about Yahoo, the company has had some good ideas, but it has not been able to capitalize on them. In search, Yahoo lost out to Google. In pictures, Yahoo is facing threats from Google and Pinterest. In social, Yahoo, like Google, is eating fumes and road grit from Facebook’s diesel party bus.
Third, Yahoo wants more than money. Yahoo wants respect. Here’s the passage I found amusing despite the seriousness of the complaint:
Yahoo is harmed by Facebook’s use of Yahoo’s patented technologies in a way that cannot be compensated for by repayment of a royalty alone.
When I read this sentence, I wanted to pick up my red pencil and add, “Yahoo demands respect.”
I am not a legal eagle. Legal eagles frighten me whether flying alone or in Facebook formation.I think that Yahoo can sue if it wishes. I have been around too long and sufficiently close to some legal hassles to know that predicting the outcome of intellectual property and patent disputes is more difficult than getting the winner of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament right on the Courier Journal’s bracket page. Come to think of it, there will be as many players in this legal matter as there are teams in the NCAA tournament. I don’t even want a scorecard.
Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: A New Face for SharePoint Online
March 13, 2012
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