Funnelback and Its Value Proposition
April 8, 2015
Short honk: I was cruising through the Web sites of search vendors which have dropped off my radar. The Funnelback Web site is now red and gray. Aside from the bold colors, the Web site introduces an interesting capability of the Funnelback system. I won’t go into the long history of Funnelback and how it became a commercial enterprise search system. I want to focus on this phrase: tangible insights. Here’s the context for the phrase:
Funnelback is a search platform that enables you to go further, faster, with tangible insights that help you transform your business.
I thought that “tangible” meant this courtesy of Dictionary.coma:
1. capable of being touched; discernible by the touch; material or substantial.
2. real or actual, rather than imaginary or visionary: the tangible benefits of sunshine.
3. definite; not vague or elusive: no tangible grounds for suspicion.
4. (of an asset) having actual physical existence, as real estate or chattels, and therefore capable of being assigned a value in monetary terms.
I thought that “insights” meant this:
1. an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, especially through intuitive understanding: an insight into 18th-century life.
2. penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth.
I remember the former president’s comment to me that my write up of Funnelback was no good. The wizard did not recall that I provided the draft to him and he delegated the editorial review to a member of his staff. The wizard, who is undoubtedly brighter than I, was criticizing his own colleague’s inputs to the document. I suppose that is an example in the addled world of big time search based on government funded research a “tangible insight.” Well, could it be an example of how addled thinking can surface because of the organization’s DNA?
Now the question: What exactly is a tangible insight output from the Funnelback system? I am waiting because I do not want to go further or faster. I want some clear thinking when it comes to explaining what an enterprise search system actually does? Has language lost its meaning before the search engine optimizers bring semantics to their fine work?
Penetrating and real too.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2015
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