Vivisimo Value
April 30, 2012
Okay, azure chip consultants, the goslings and I have completed our review of the Vivisimo information in our Overflight system. We have reviewed the data available to us for the IBM buy outs of Cognos, i2, and SPSS. We have reached some hypothetical conclusions. Keep in mind that this is our own Kentucky analysis, fueled by mine run off and our Overflight data.
First, we think the IBM Vivisimo deal was a pretty good move for IBM. More to the point, IBM gets some technology and some employees. But the amount of dough IBM coughed up for Vivisimo was probably not much above $25 million and may be as low as $18 to $19 million. The reason is that Vivisimo just did not have market traction, a fact I documented in The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, which is now out of print. (We are still doing briefings, so if you are interested, write us at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com.
Second, the Vivisimo technology was not up to the rigors of the enterprise. In fact, we believe that the “big data” public relations spin was one of those deals which reach back through college fraternities and obligations which the Facebook generation do not understand. We hypothesize that this was a “white knight” deal, not a crafty business move to thwart Oracle or SAP, among others in the enterprise game.
Third, the value of the recent spate of acquisitions says more about what a company will pay for customers, consulting opportunities, and ways to extend the life of an existing product line. Lexmark printers anyone? Vivisimo is more of a utility; it is not an Autonomy or an Endeca type of outfit.
How wrong are we? Well, since this is a free blog, you need to do your own calculation. We think our hypothesis is pretty strong and we think the value of the deal is in the range we calculated. Azure chip outfits will want to avoid search. The money days may be over. Hello, big data and analytics. Goodbye, gentle search.
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
What Happens When One NOTs Out Web Sites?
April 30, 2012
We learned about Million Short. The idea is that a user can NOT out a block of Web sites. The use case is that a query is passed to the system, and the system filters out the top 1,000 or 100,000 Web sites. We think you will want to check it out. Once you have run some sample queries, consider these questions:
- When a handful of Web sites attract the most traffic, is popularity the road to comprehensive information retrieval?
- When sites are NOTted out, what do you gain? What do you lose?
- How do you know what is filtered from any Web search index? Do you run test queries and examine the results?
Enjoy. If you know a librarian, why not involve that person in your test queries?
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Oracle Google: An Interesting View
April 30, 2012
I read “My attitude on Oracle v Google.” I was confused. The “inside baseball” write up references folks by their first name. There is, therefore, some ambiguity, which in legal matters is often a quite effective rhetorical technique. I noted this passage:
Just because Sun didn’t have patent suits in our genetic code doesn’t mean we didn’t feel wronged. While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun.
The post is by James Gosling, whom I associate with Sun’s rise and fall, Java, and some interesting wordsmithing.
My takeaway from the short item was that emotion, not engineering seems to be important in the Oracle Google dust up. The other value of the post is that it triggered a quite interesting comment from Bruno Lowagie, who opined:
I hope Oracle wins, not regarding the ‘copyright on APIs’, but because Google doesn’t respect copyright in general. As for Apache, ASL stands for the Apache Slavery License doesn’t it? Large corporations encourage you to use the ASL instead of the GPL so that they can make money using the code, whereas the developer can hardly make any money writing it.
Yikes, slavery. Perhaps Mr. Lowagie is angling for a project at Oracle, an outstanding employer.
Stephen E Arnold, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 23 to April 27
April 30, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, problems in the data analytics world and how they are overcome.
“The Trouble with Big Data and Social Media” took a look at the overwhelming glut of info brought on by social media and how analytics looks to wrangle it.
“Big Data Law Could Smooth Bad Government PR” actually looks to smooth over a prior problem. The government appears to be making nice with big data companies after threatening its reputation in a data mining suit.
“Big Data Downfall Not Believable” zeroes in on the naysayers of big data and proves them wrong at every turn.
As with any burgeoning industry, there are lows that go along with the highs. Often, like with the above stories, you can learn a lot about how people handle these rough patches. You can bet we’ll be studying these moments along with the highs every day.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 30, 2012
Yes, Marketing! 2011 Marked by Record Breaking Ad Sales
April 30, 2012
Taume.com recently reported on stunning internet ad revenues that could be one explantation for the increased tension between Facebook and Google in the article “Internet Ad Revenues Hit $31 Billion in 2011, Historic High Up 22% Over 2010 Record-Breaking Numbers.”
According to the 2011 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, (IAB) revenues have reached record highs of $31 billion. The article highlights several other growth categories from this year in the categories of mobile (up 149 percent), digital video (up 29 percent), and search revenues (up 27 percent).
Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB stated:
“This historic moment, with an especially impressive achievement in mobile, is indicative of an increased awareness from advertisers that they need to reach consumers where they are spending their time–in digital media. Pushing past the $30 billion barrier, the interactive advertising industry confirms its central place in media. Across search, display, digital video, digital provides a wealth of opportunity for brands and consumers. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, it is likely that the tremendous growth in mobile will continue as these screens become even more crucial to the marketing mix.”
Do these numbers reflect a change in priorities for search giants like Google and Facebook? and if so, is it a positive one?
Jasmine Ashton, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Brin Plays Defense: Competitors Relieved or Subject to Revisionism??
April 30, 2012
The Inquirer recently posted an interesting item about Google’s Sergey Brin explaining comments he previously made about certain competitors in the article “Sergey Brin Explains ‘Internet Enemies Comments”
According to the article, Brin thought that his comments were taken out of context. Also since the previous article was a short summary of a long discussion, his opinions were distorted. In reality, he holds competitors like Apple and Facebook in high regard.
In hopes of clarifying his previous statement that Google has a number of Internet enemies, Brin said:
“Today, the primary threat by far to internet freedom is government filtering of political dissent. This has been far more effective than I ever imagined possible across a number of nations. In addition, other countries such as the US have come close to adopting very similar techniques in order to combat piracy and other vices. I believe these efforts have been misguided and dangerous.”
It’s funny how the free flow of information can sometimes work to our disadvantage by blowing statements out of proportion.
Jasmine Ashton, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Samir Batla Discusses Cloud Based Content Analytics
April 30, 2012
Text Analytics News recently shared an interesting podcast on their site called “Employ the Cloud for Efficient Content Analytics” as part of their text analytics podcast series leading up to the upcoming text mining conference scheduled for June 12 through 13 in Boston.
In part three of the series Samir Batla, the Principal Product Manager of Search & Analytics for EMC Corporation explains some of the technical aspects and business advantages of performing content analysis in the cloud along with some of the risks associated with performing cloud-based text analytics. Batla also offers tools on how to determine the best approach for operating your content analytics solution in the cloud.
According to Batla, 90% of our digital universe is unstructured content and 91 percent of IP traffic will be video by 2014 and it will take 72 million hours to view that content. Content is exploding and people who create solutions need to combine their own technical expertise with the needs of their users.
When discussing the difference between Enterprise IT and the public cloud Batla states:
“With Enterprise IT the message today is that it is complex and it is expensive and not flexible. However, it is trusted and you can control it. It’s reliable and secure. The public cloud is flexible and dynamic and it is low cost but there is no control or security.”
For those interested in getting an in depth look at the pros and cons of the various types of cloud solutions available, this is an excellent podcast to listen to.
Jasmine Ashton, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Prepare Your Organization for SharePoint 2013
April 30, 2012
SharePoint users are hotly anticipating the release of SharePoint 2013. Will the changes be large or small? How will it affect an organization’s existing infrastructure? Market Watch turns hypothesis into practical action, discussing the upcoming release and also preparations that you can take now to prepare your organization. Read the full report in, “Eight Ways to Prepare for the Next Release of SharePoint Now.”
Quest Software, a provider of enterprise tools for SharePoint, offers the following:
Microsoft is gradually revealing details on what users can expect in the next version, which many anticipate will be available in early 2013. With widespread expectations beginning to surface around social capabilities, the cloud, and a new interface, the early anticipation indicates users are already thinking about what’s next for SharePoint. As organizations start considering the next version, there are many ways they can prepare the environment to gain immediate benefits now, and be ready to quickly take advantage of new features later.
Quest goes on to layout what it calls a “next version readiness” plan. However, we think that things could be made a bit simpler. Microsoft is known for its ritualistic three-year cycle of software overhaul. However, smart third-party enterprise solutions like Fabasoft Mindbreeze update on a timetable that is much less disruptive. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise unveils new releases quarterly for on-site installations, and even more often for Cloud installations.
Updates are performed seamlessly, requiring no major overhauls or contingency plans. Rather, updates make the user experience even more pleasant. Above all, findability and efficiency are increased with Mindbreeze, whether it stands alone or works in tandem with an existing SharePoint infrastructure. Explore the entire suite of offering by Fabasoft Mindbreeze and see what they can do to improve your organization’s information management system.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Gives Innovation Wings
April 30, 2012
As the many benefit of a customized product lifecycle management (PLM) solution is circulating throughout industries many are finding that despite their initial belief that PLM was for CAD based enterprises only, PLM can in reality be applied to almost any business application to cut costs, streamline processes and speed up production. A recent blog post, “PLM: A New World of (More) Collaboration and Innovation”, on Technology Evaluations Centers, explains some of the benefits just about any company will realize should they adopt a PLM solution.
Innovation, being vital to the success of any enterprise, is helped in spades by PLM. As the article explains,
“Innovation is much more than a buzzword in the PLM world and it doesn’t only refer to new exciting products or services – it’s more about finding more creative and practical ways to design, manufacture and maintain products. It’s a reality, just like collaboration, and the two are inseparable. PLM users were the first to understand that innovation must involve all departments of the company, as well as customers and business partners.”
Because innovation is the only way a company can survive these difficult economic times we support not only the ideas of the blog post but also companies espousing innovation while offering PLM solutions. Inforbix, a company specializing in helping companies find, reuse and share data within a global PLM solution, believes in innovation across the board. There customized data management solutions are the jumping off point for their clients to achieve their innovative goals.
Catherine Lamsfuss, April 30, 2012
eDiscovery Costs are Frustrating
April 30, 2012
Here is a not-so-surprising revelation recently reported by Inside Counsel: most users are frustrated with the cost of eDiscovery.
The article, “New Study Says Cost is Most Frustrating Factor in eDiscovery,” reveals the results of a survey by consulting company FTI Technology. The survey covered ways to streamline and reduce the cost of eDiscovery. The company interviewed 31 in-house counsels with eDiscovery responsibilities and asked them for their thoughts. The verdict? Users are not happy. The article reports:
“*94% of respondents found the cost of e-discovery “frustrating”
*87% of respondents used an early case assessment to try to resolve matters earlier
*81% of respondents brought software in house, which helps to cut costs on law firm or service provider fees
*52% of respondents brought staff in house to help reduce fees spent on law firms or service providers
*32% of respondents used clustering or visualization tools to speed review along (down from 34% in 2010)”
A full copy of FTI’s report is available here.
In our view, what matters in search is cost and user satisfaction. There does not seem to be much progress in the last few years, especially considering that the report also comments that most companies are not even aware of their spending habits.
Andrea Hayden, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
