The Open Source Search Ostriches
April 30, 2012
ArnoldIT, located in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, has spotted a new species of search, content processing, and text mining vendor: The Scrutans Struthioniformes. Believed to be related to the ratites, this new subspecies is known to be indifferent to ignorant of the predator from the open source jungle.
The proprietary search vendor, Scrutans Struthioniformes, ignores the impact of open source search and information retrieval systems.
ArnoldIT has completed a couple of exploratory expeditions thought he wilds of open source search, clustering, and related disciplines. Sparked by the bimonthly feature on open source search which is currently appearing in Information Today’s Online Magazine, the discovery of the Scrutans Struthioniformes was unexpected.
For almost 50 years, information retrieval meant proprietary systems built upon innovations by academic researchers. When the influence was from the number crunching of the Cornell school or the semantic shenanigans from Stanford, search and retrieval translated to:
- Expensive to license, install, optimize, and maintain systems
- Licensing restrictions which prevented client-specific tailoring and fast cycle problem remediation or feature addition
- High levels of user dissatisfaction from the CFO’s office (the lady who pays the bills) to the user in the sales department (the person who has to find out what happened to a particular customer’s order).
What’s changed, according to ArnoldIT, is that open source options are readily available. Smart outfits like IBM killed off in house, brute force search efforts and embraced the open source Lucene/Solr technology. IBM is a proprietary outfit, but the use of Lucene/Solr allowed more effort to be put into value-adding projects such as the “wrappers” which make Watson a game show winner. IBM has also used its billions to purchase proprietary vendors to deliver “additional value.” The purchase of Vivisimo is a good example of a quick way to get clustering, deduping, and federating functions to bolt on the open source plumbing. IBM may disagree, but we have our views.
Other vendors have built businesses on open source search. One example is the emergence of Lucid Imagination and its Lucid Works Enterpriser 2.0 solution. Licensees get speedy search and retrieval, a staff able to answer questions, and a the rapid cycle innovation of the open source Lucene/Solr software.
Clever Amazon is a “sort of” open outfit. On one hand, the company uses open source software to make the Amazon cloud work. However,the CloudSearch solution is based on A9. Amazon, however, provides “sort of” open application programming interfaces. Open source as a business angle is part of the CloudSearch play along with making life easy for developers to deliver “good enough” search.
The Basho Riak Search angle is a variation. Riak Search is proprietary but Basho has made it open source. (A free profile of Basho is available by registering at TheSeed2020, an ArnoldIT content delivery Web site.) Good citizens and good marketing. For a company with a problem which requires Basho data management, the Riak Search solution is available, and it is open source.
There are other variations as well, and these are explained in the ArnoldIT briefing about open source search, its opportunities, and its challenges. Unlike the technology payloads delivered by blogs, the ArnoldIT briefing focuses on the business angle of open source search, and the research has delivered some shockers; for example:
- In a sample of 35 proprietary search vendors, 25 assert that their systems are in some way open source. Good marketing, better technology, or great hyperbole?
- In a sample of 100 search vendors, two thirds of those pinged by ArnoldIT know about or are on top of open source search. Quite an assertion as the Lucid Imagination Lucene Revolution approaches with dozens of case studies that reveal large companies’ willingness to shift from proprietary solutions to open source search. Are most vendors of proprietary search systems ignoring reality? Sure looks like some are confident the search world tomorrow will look the way it did in 2003.
- Hosted search is gaining traction in some specific niches. Two of these niches have long been dominated by proprietary systems. More surprising in the fact that the greatest inroads are being made among the Fortune 1000. That’s the market where money often is for enterprise software vendors.
Will vendors of proprietary search and retrieval systems be able to keep their investors and stakeholders happy as open source becomes a greater force in 2013? The briefing considers the scenario when firms pour more funds into open source search and content processing start ups. If this happens, life becomes more difficult from “on the bubble” vendors of taxonomy, clustering, search, and basic information retrieval systems.
Net net: Another search revolution is brewing. Is your proprietary search vendor a Scrutans Struthioniformes? A better question: Are you? For more information about the ArnoldIT open source search briefing, write seaky2000 at yahoo dot com for options and fees. ArnoldIT may create an open source search ostrich T shirt. Stay tuned. Max and Tess are working on this project now.
Stephen E Arnold, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Feds End Contract with Oracle
April 30, 2012
Oracle has taken a big hit recently, when the Feds decided to pull the trigger on nixing Oracle contracts.
This hit will cost Oracle dearly. According to the article on ZDNet, “Feds Nix Oracle Blanket Contract,” the government is reported to have spent $388 million with Oracle last year. While the loss may seem like pennies to a company turning over more than $37 billion, the repercussions may be felt more widely. The ZDNet article asserts:
“Neither party is commenting beyond what has already been said but it will almost certainly mean Oracle will need to go back to the negotiating table for unfulfilled contracts. In the meantime, government buyers can be sure that Oracle sales people will be all over them to maximise spend in the run up to Oracle’s year end, which falls 31st May. The Feds can also be sure that Oracle will send in its audit crews, keen to wring out the most they possibly can from whatever is left on the table.”
The implication lies precisely in what the government is not saying: why exactly they chose to end the relationship. If more businesses decide to follow suit, does this open the door for open source, Microsoft, and Google?
Andrea Hayden, April 30, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Is Knoodle The New Powerpoint?
April 29, 2012
Training and presentation tools are a necessary part of any business and now Revelytix, has upgraded the version of Knoodl that they initially released in 2009. The article, Revelytix Releases Knoodl 3.0 – MarketWatch provides perspective users a look inside what they have to offer in today’s evolving market.
If you happen to be unfamiliar with Revelytix, they are a commercial software company that works with semantic standards. They provide tools enabling Enterprise Information Management so that companies can more readily deal with big data.
The basic upgrades included are;
“This release includes many improvements in the security framework required to satisfy the stringent security requirement of the U.S. Department of Defense. Additional functionality includes a Google gadget container based on Shindig and the Open Social API.
A design interface has been incorporated, making it easy for Knoodl users to create dashboards for visualizing the results of SPARQL queries. All Knoodl gadgets comply with the Google container specification.”
This modernized version of Knoodle offers cloud-based social presentation, training, and learning management within a single platform allowing for effective training and presentations that can be targeted to a specific audience. Those that utilize Knoodle can teach using slides, video, audio, images, surveys, tests, multiple delivery options, and data analytics. Basically, they’ve combined cloud technology with their own version of Powerpoint to compete in today’s market.
Jennifer Shockley, April 29, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
SLI Systems Inks a Deal With Magento
April 29, 2012
Everyone knows that ease of access is indeed the key to a successful business, in particular one that specializes in e-commerce, like Ebay. In the article, SLI Systems Partners with Magento, Extends Learning Search Connect – MarketWatch we learn that finding your preferred purchase is about to get a lot easier when shopping online.
Being user friendly is a key, and:
“Search is a key feature of any e-commerce website, and greatly influences the overall visitor experience,” said Ed Hoffman, vice president of global business and corporate development for SLI Systems. Through search technology that learns from customer behavior, retailers can maximize site usability and conversions. Our new extension for Magento clients will allow them to capture significant ROI benefits while bolstering brand loyalty and adding more to the bottom line.”
SLI Systems is a company that provides users with customized site-search navigation, for user-generated SEO. Their techniques allow businesses the power to enhance their customer service without the use of representatives, thus providing customer satisfaction and increased sales.
Magento has become one of the fastest growing eCommerce platforms. They utilize open source eCommerce solutions that provide flexibility along with functionality and control over content and presentation. SLI Systems made the right choice when they inked a deal with Magento (a unit of eBay).
Jennifer Shockley, April 29, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Google FCC Street View Document
April 29, 2012
Looking for the redacted report. Try this link. No comment from Kentucky, however. The situation speaks for itself. The fine is also an important signal about how the FCC perceives the “misstep.”
Stephen E Arnold, April 28, 2012
Sponsored by no human.
Foursquare Helps Businesses Stay Connected with Their Customers
April 28, 2012
Review sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon become incredibly important when determining the success or failure of a local business. But how can you make reviewing your business fun and easy? Search Engine Journal recently reported on the location based social networking site Foursquare in the article “How to Use Foursquare to Get Reviews for Your Local Business.”
According to the article, 76% of consumers use online reviews to determine which local business they will patronize. Unlike other review sites, Foursquare has a free check in feature that gives your business instant promotion. It also has two added benefits that further distinguish your business:
“First, because it’s integrated with Twitter, it gives you direct access to your customers. Second, by nature of who’s most likely to actually check in, it more specifically gives you access to your most loyal brand advocates. After all, if a customer goes as far as to publicly announce that he or she’s visiting your storefront, it’s pretty safe to assume that they had a positive experience. These are the people you want to leave reviews!”
Foursquare also makes it easy to set up notifications that allow you to see what your customers are saying about your business. Having direct access with your customers allows you to create a dialogue with them that will make them feel appreciated and want to return.
Jasmine Ashton, April 29, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
SEO Confusion is Common
April 28, 2012
If you are confused by SEO tactics, don’t fret because you are not alone. SEO admits even it is not sure what it does.
In an effort to ease the confusion, Search Engine Journal recently posted an article titled, “24 Eye-Popping SEO Statistics.” The article begins by commenting on the apparently misunderstood medium that is not well regarded in the online marketing arena (just type “seo is” into Google and watch it fill in the blanks.) We then read that a user should begin by getting their minimum viable SEO right before site-building and may then turn to more advanced SEO once they have accomplished that.
And then, to complete the explanation of SEO, some statistics are presented. Some key stats from the article:
“*Content marketing rocks. Marketing Sherpa reports distribution lead to a 2,000% increase in blog traffic and a 40% increase in revenue.
*70% of the links search users click on are organic.
*70-80% of users ignore the paid ads, focusing on the organic results.
*75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
*GroupM states “when consumers were exposed to both search and social media influenced by a brand that overall search CTR went up by 94 percent.”
*Search and e-mail are the top two internet activities.”
Still confused? So are we. And I’m fairly confident the SEO gurus are too.
Statistics do not define SEO, and readers should be provided more valid reasoning and explanation of processes before being asked to embrace the so-called marketing tool.
Andrea Hayden, April 28, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
How Does Microsoft Fare in the CRM Race?
April 28, 2012
Social, Mobile, and Cloud. These three are the main components of CRM. All of these allow users to connect anytime, anywhere, and any way they want. And Microsoft aims to incorporate all of these elements into their Microsoft Dynamics CRM Anywhere, which is due to be launched in 2Q of this year.
In the mobile aspect, they support all major tablet and smartphone OS including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone. On the social side, Microsoft has Facebook, Twitter, andLinkedIn integration. They even have an Activity Feed that facilitates internal communications (ergo better service delivery and happier customers). In the cloud realm, Microsoft aims to do whatOracle and SAP have already implemented – a hybrid cloud strategy.
But are the efforts of Microsoft to compete in the CRM arena enough? The blog post entitled “Microsoft – Convergence at Last?” at Free Social CRM .COM answers this sufficiently:
“What’s become increasingly clear is that Microsoft due to pressure from the bottom (customer side) up and due to pressure… generated internally is beginning to seriously open up their thinking and step up their efforts to compete in the market… Some of their thinking and actions are incredibly smart, some just table stakes, but they also remain deficient in a few critical areas that they need to make them competitive at the enterprise level particularly.”
While the new features of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM line will help them compete better with the industry veterans, they still have a lot to worry about. They have their traditional competitors like Oracle’s Fusion and Siebel CRM, SAP CRM, Salesforce.com, and Sage as well as startups that have the potential to compete like SugarCRM.
Microsoft’s activity in the CRM field has been on and off for several years that their commitment seems questionable. We have yet to see how they will manage in the functionality-and-feature war this time. Will Fast Search morph into a customer support solution, a path followed by search vendors Coveo and Vivisimo.
Lauren Llamanzares, April 28, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Amazon: The Important Number
April 27, 2012
Short honk: I don’t want to dampen the flames of excitement about Amazon’s financial report. You can get lots of happiness. Just navigate to “Amazon’s Q1 2012: Revenue Up 34 Percent To $13.2B, Net Income Down 35 Percent.” I learned:
Amazon just reported earnings for the first quarter of 2012. Net sales increased 34% to $13.18 billion in the first quarter, compared with $9.86 billion in first quarter 2011. Net income decreased 35% to $130 million in the first quarter, or $0.28 per diluted share, compared with net income of $201 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, in first quarter 2011. The company beat Wall Street expectations; analysts expected a profit of $0.07 per share on revenue of $12.9 billion for the quarter.
I want to capture what I think is the important number. Amazon’s costs continue to rise. The company is in a race to invest and buy market share. But it has to convert these gains to big money because the cost of the infrastructure, the new staff, legal hassles, and “inventing” gizmos are going up and fast.
One of the secrets of online is that investments in technology really do not flatten out. Only more big money makes the online business work. Amazon is in a race against costs. Exciting. Neither Amazon nor Google is immune to the online cost rash.
Stephen E Arnold, April 27, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Our Cloudy Future
April 27, 2012
CNet News looks down the road in “Where IT is Going: Cloud, Mobile, and Data.” Of course, cloud computing, mobile devices, and big data are related. All are part of the move away from powerful, independent PCs to remotely accessed, communal data repositories.
Writer Gordon Haff rightly notes that “cloud” is a beleaguered term, suffering from “definitional overload,” but he manages to define it, rather broadly, for the purposes of his article:
“Think of cloud computing as being about trends in computer architectures, how applications are loaded onto those systems and made to do useful work, how servers communicate with each other and with the outside world, and how administrators manage and provide access. This trend also encompasses all the infrastructure and ‘plumbing’ that makes it possible to effectively coordinate data centers full of systems increasingly working as a unified compute resource as opposed to islands of specialized capacity.”
Mobile devices are the way we access this “unified compute resource,” but for Haff the term extends beyond smartphones and tablets. He cites sensors on large systems like power grids, and the ability for that system to use sensor information to make changes, as another example.
Big data is the well of information manipulated through the cloud, and Huff notes that our huge data collections are forcing a change in how that information is stored. We are moving away from disk arrays toward software-based storage spread across servers.
The article contains a good deal of information, and is a valuable read for anyone interested in the direction in which we are moving.
Cynthia Murrell, April 27, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
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