Understanding Google: Site Reliability
August 6, 2018
There are few mysteries we never thought would be answered: Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone? What happened to Amelia Earhart? And how does Google marketing work? The first two will probably never find a satisfactory solution, but the third might, after we stumbled upon a recent page and book “The Site Reliability Workbook.”
According to the site:
“The Site Reliability Workbook is the hands-on companion to the bestselling Site Reliability Engineering book and uses concrete examples to show how to put SRE principles and practices to work. This book contains practical examples from Google’s experiences and case studies from Google’s Cloud Platform customers. Evernote, The Home Depot, The New York Times, and other companies outline hard-won experiences of what worked for them and what didn’t.”
While this doesn’t prove to be the Rosetta Stone we were hoping for, it’s always good to get a better understanding of the mechanics at play in these situations. However, the jury is out about whether it is a smart use of time. Some critics say Google is a mess that could experience an outage at any minute, while others are celebrating the search giant and its marketing chops. Either way, we’ll have a slightly better understanding about why after reading this workbook.
Patrick Roland, August 6, 2018
A View of the Google Employee Resistance Movement
August 5, 2018
I read “Googlers Bristle at Censoring Search for China.” The main idea is that Google is experiencing “widespread employee anger.” Call me old fashioned, but I thought that when a person accepted a job for money and benefits, part of the deal was to work on tasks one’s boss handed out. The write up states:
Google was scurrying to stop leaks and quell outrage inside the company over what had been a stealth project prior to a report this week by news website The Intercept.
I like the “scurrying” metaphor.
Unnamed sources allegedly said:
“Everyone’s access to documents got turned off, and is being turned on [on a] document-by-document basis,” a source told the news site. “There’s been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared. … Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y.”
The write up reveals that Google has 700 employees in three offices in China.
Is it possible for China to direct its attention to these employees. Monitoring might communicate a hint that finding work at another company might be a good idea?
Of course, here in rural Kentucky, it seems possible, maybe likely.
Net net: Google has a couple of challenges to which to respond: Management and getting a chunk of what may be one of the largest markets in the world.
No big deal for an online advertising company selling Loon balloons and waiting for money to roll in from an investment in baby Segways.
But what about employee resistance? What about some actual sources?
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2018
Periodic Table of Technology
August 4, 2018
Get ready to redistribute your retirement funds or plan your career. A Periodic Table of Elements with two letter mnemonics, brief descriptions, and more is now available. The work is an output of Imperial Tech Foresight. I scanned the table, focusing on technologies which are likely to come along in the near future. I noted three:
- The balloon powered Internet. Yep, that’s a Google thing.
- Computerized shoes. Yep, but I think I saw a young skater with sneakers which flashed secret messages.
- Human bio hacking. Yep, but I thought one fellow who was doing self DNA modification has moved on to another realm.
One interesting inclusion in the chart is a listing of companies engaged in these technologies.
One or two will produce financial home runs. Start investing.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2018
Thoughtspot: Confused in Kentucky over AI for BI Plus Search Plus Analytics
August 3, 2018
i read “Nutanix Co-Founder Lures Away Its President to Be New CEO at ThoughtSpot.” The headline is a speed bump. But what puzzled me was this passage:
ThoughtSpot Inc. has hired Nutanix Inc.’s president as its new CEO. Sudheesh Nair joins ThoughtSpot about three months after the Palo Alto enterprise search business raised $145 million in a funding round that valued the company at more than $1 billion.
I added the emphasis on the phrase “enterprise search business.”
Search is not exactly the hottest buzzword around these days. After shock from the FAST Search & Transfer and IBM Watson adventures I hypothesize.
Now here’s the pothole: The ThoughtSpot Web site states:
Search & AI Driven analytics.
I noted the phrase “next generation analytics for the enterprise.” Plus, ThoughtSpot is a platform.
But what about artificial intelligence? Well, that’s part of the offering as well.
Remarkable: A Swiss Army knife. Many functions which may work in a pinch and certainly better than no knife at all.
But what’s the company do? Gartner suggests the firm has vision.
That helps. The first time around with FAST ESP and IBM Watson-like marketing the slow curves went right by the batters and the buyers. The billion dollar valuation is juicy as well. Another Autonomy? Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2018
Google and China: A New Management Approach to Silicon Valley Pragmatism
August 3, 2018
I read “While Pragmatist Pichai Ploughs into China, Google Workers Fume over Concession to Censorship.” The main point of the write up for me is that Google has a management challenge on its hands. I learned:
Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin built Google to “organize the world’s information and make it universally available”. They viewed China as a threat to the company’s stance as a defender of the open web. Pichai, in contrast, sees China as a hotbed of engineering talent and an appealing market.
The only problem is that I think that the omission of money is a modest flaw in the logic of the quoted passage.
I noted this statement:
People trust Google to share true information and the Chinese search app is a betrayal of that, the employee said. The Google workers asked not to be identified because they are not permitted to discuss internal matters.
I assume the nifty buzzword “pragmatism” (possibly a metaphor for “governance”) embraces this disconnect between what one or more Googlers perceive, and what the GOOG actually does to deliver “relevant” results.
I highlighted:
Dragonfly [the code name for the new China specific search app] was a popular topic on Memegen, an internal online photo messaging board and cultural barometer at the company. One meme cited a popular Google slogan – “Put the user first” – with an asterisk attached: “Chinese users excluded, because we do not agree with your government.” A second post questioned the merits of American staff deciding global policies. Westerners debating Google entering China “feels somehow like men debating regulating women’s bodies,” it read.
Yep, relevant results. Pragmatic results too.
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2018
Math: The New Reality for Cryptocurrency Believers?
August 3, 2018
A lot of really smart people believe they can predict the future with math. Before you laugh, consider that meteorologists study weather patterns to predict the weather, biologists studies a tumor’s growth trajectory to determine future growth, and financial analysts predict the stock market’s up and downs. Phys.org takes a look at how scientists are using math to track down patterns to then predict the future: “Can Math Predict What You Do Next?”
Guess what the article is talking about? Big data and predictive analytics! It explains how retailers like Amazon use predictive analytics to predict what products consumers want next. Online advertisers are doing it to! Wow! This is new stuff…not, but the information on mathematical machine learning puts some new thoughts out there.
Machine learning algorithms can accurately predict Supreme Court outcomes, suicide attempts, and terrorist attacks. Machine learning is not perfectly accurate:
“As technology develops, scientists may find that we can predict human behavior rather well in one area, while still lacking in another. It’s very difficult to give an overall sense of the limitations. For instance, facial recognition may be easier to emulate because vision is one of many human sensory processing systems, or because there are only so many ways faces can differ. On the other hand, predicting voting behavior, especially based on the 2016 presidential election, is quite another story. There are many complex and not yet understood reasons why humans do what they do.”
One example is the reassuring human behavior of using information for personal gain. Combine opportunity, cleverness, and greed, and you end up with cryptocurrency markets struggling with insider trading. Math seems to contribute to the human calculus.
Whitney Grace, August 3, 2018
The Internet: A Heraclitian Insight Millennia Late
August 3, 2018
What will the internet of 2026 look like? Chances are, we have no clue. With the rapid pace of change and innovation, especially in AI and machine learning, means that it will be interesting, to say the least. This was brought to our attention by looking at an old Search Engine Journal article, “10 Things from 2010 That May Shape Your 2011.”
Curiously, there is no mention of AI and social media was still in its infancy. According to the poll they ran:
“Interestingly, Hitwise suggests 13% growth in retailer’s traffic from social media year on year highlighting the importance of word-of-mouth and the optimization of search and social media assets with such purpose….“Increasing monetization of social media such as Twitter is also an area to keep an eye on, knowing the interest of clients in this area.”
This poll is so innocent, it’s almost adorable. The idea that Twitter and social media might have a financial impact on the world and on politics exists, adrift from the realities of weaponized information. It appears that AI and machine learning will occupy the same ironic position in nearly 10 years. Look at how any experts are saying it will shape governments and also today’s approach to ethics.
We think meme crafting is a hip way to explain how those who have information insight, money, and capabilities can make sure the river one steps into is filtered, controlled, and temperature controlled. New to meme crafting? Think of propaganda designed for keeping Heraclitus’ maxim fresh:
Big results require big ambitions. Patrick Roland,
Patrick Roland, August 3, 2018
About Wanting China to Change
August 2, 2018
I read “Google Developing News App for China.” Interesting tactical shift at the GOOG. I won’t bring up the remarkable suggestion some senior Googlers floated years ago. Nope. I won’t write: “Google wants China to change.” No. I will not mention that the Middle Kingdom has not been a social construct ready to rush into the Brave New World. China is, well, China.
The main point of the write up is that Google employs some people who have probably figured out that China is a big market. In terms of market share, Google is looking at the Great Wall from afar. Where there is money, there is now a desire to become a player in what sure looks like one of the world’s largest markets.
Bottom-line: Google will do things the way China wants them done. That killing courtyard in Xi’an made it clear that once in that clever reception area, one did it China’s way or the clueless traders were in a position of strategic and tactical disadvantage. That’s a nice way of saying “trapped.”
Indexing information for China requires a basic tweak: Exclude content not on the Chinese white list.
What does this mean for the old “information wants to be free” idea?
It means that filtered information is what a person will see if Beyond Search understands the assertions in the write up.
Interesting stuff.
Google has learned a basic lesson at a cost of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, in revenue: Companies are not nation states.
Beyond Search has learned that certain “ideals” are what one might describe as “flexible.” “Real” news and MBAs discussing ethics. As the Beyond Search goose knows, “Bend like the willow in a wind.”
Stephen E Arnold, August 2, 2018
Google: A Digital Deer Stalker
August 2, 2018
The digital Natty Bumpos and Chingachcooks are on the job some pundits believe. In fact, Beyond Search has learned that some skeptical souls think Google is following you, me, heck, everyone.
We’ve all been suspecting that we are being digitally followed for quite some time now. Ever since smart phones started getting smarter than us, there’s been that suspicion. Recently, Google confirmed this but with an interesting caveat. We learned more from an in-depth IB Times story, “Tech Expert Explains How Google Maps Tracks Real Time Traffic.”
According to the story:
“Google Maps keeps on tapping the mobile phones of millions of people who keep their location services “ON” while they are on roads without hampering the security and privacy of the users. This data tracks the average speed at which the sedans are moving to a particular location.”
That’s a tough realization to come to. Yes, our driving is being intermittently watched, but the result is a better navigation tool. For example, Waze recently started using more artificial intelligence to its program. The plan is that the already crowd-sourced material from the driving app will be enhanced by predictive analytics and artificial intelligence in order to create a user experience that hopefully takes the edge off gridlock. What are your thoughts on this? We are, frankly, a little torn between beating our heads against the steering wheel in traffic and wanting to toss our phone out the window and live off the grid.
Nifty idea. Probably impossible for most individuals working, going online, using credit cards, sending text messages, etc.
Patrick Roland, August 2, 2018
Data Wizard: School or Short Cut?
August 2, 2018
With the increase focus on data analytics and search, the role of data scientists has changed drastically over the last decade, or heck, even over the last twelve months. With that increasing dependence on their skills and the continual flexibility of their world, higher ed has been responding. Turns out, these number crunchers are becoming increasingly educated, according to a fascinating article from Kaggle, “The State of ML and Data Science in 2017.”
- The survey spoke with thousands of machine learning and data science experts and found a variety of insights, like how 41.8% have a Master’s degree, but only 15% have doctorals.
- “What is your highest level of formal education?
- “So, should you get that next degree? In general, the highest percentage of people in working data science, obtained a Master’s degree. But those people in the highest salary ranges ($150K – $200K and $200k+) are just as likely to have a doctoral degree.”
Many schools are beginning to offer data science programs for undergrads and grad students, however, universities are now struggling to define what this fluid field exactly, “is”. The University of Houston had to grapple with just such an issue and the results were vague at best. But, we’d say these baby steps are in the right direction.
Beyond Search believes that some “data experts” just tweak their LinkedIn profiles. Easy. Quick. Marketing.
Patrick Roland, August 2, 2018
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