Google Opens Cloud SQL Database for App Engine Developers
October 18, 2011
Due to popular demand by App Engine developers, Google has come out with a relational database called Google Cloud SQLfor its cloud-hosted App Engine application development and hosting platform.According to the ComputerWorld article, Google Ads Cloud-based SQL Database to App Engine, Navneet Joneja, product manager for Google Cloud SQL, said in a recent blog post:
You can now choose to power your App Engine applications with a familiar relational database in a fully-managed cloud environment. This allows you to focus on developing your applications and services, free from the chores of managing, maintaining and administering relational databases.
For now the database is available on limited preview mode and is free of charge for the select developers who have access to it. However, once the service leaves the preview stage, Google will charge developers for the management of their databases. The search giant said it will announce pricing 30 days before they begin charging, so developers shouldn’t to get too comfortable. With Microsoft getting the warm fuzzies over Hadoop, we think there will be some interesting pushing and shoving going on. If pro football coaches can do, so can Google and Microsoft.
Jasmine Ashton, October 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Oracle Scores with Text Query Functions
October 17, 2011
Save Your Knowledge, an IT knowledge and experience blog, provides a useful how-to with, “Oracle Text: A Simple Way to Implement Scoring Text Search Engine on Oracle DB.” We quite like the allusions to the work of Edward Hopper too.
The author’s English is interesting, but the concept is clear:
In this post I will describe text query functionality. My customer wants search functionality on several database columns, and results must be ordered by their relevance. Using a “like” clause let’s you find results that contains a word but doesn’t say you how much relevant it is. For this purpose you can use Oracle Text extension.
Most licensees of Oracle’s flag ship database will have or be able to get access to the Text functions. Although getting long in the tooth, the system will index what’s in an Oracle table. Performance can be an interesting challenge. Scaling and speeding up the creaking technology of Oracle Text requires expertise and resources; that is, money and time. For more information about Oracle text, click here.
The author goes on to describe how to make this work in various contexts and also provides examples, screenshots, etc. The technique could be a helpful function for users of the Oracle application and is worth a look.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 17, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Fixes Maps in 15 Minutes
October 15, 2011
Let’s say that an address or landmark is wrong on Google Maps and someone, somewhere uses Google Map Maker to fix it. How long does it take to show up in Google Maps? And how long does it take to populate out into all the embedded Google Maps around the world that are powered by the Google Maps API, the most popular API in the world? According to the company this week, it now takes as little as fifteen minutes.
Now that’s customer service. Lots of competition in mobile apps, especially in maps, drives Google to keep refresh rates very high, and update times very short. To stay dominant in this market, Google has to stay fast.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 15, 2011
RIM Creates BlackBerry App to Address Needs of Changing Workforce
October 11, 2011
Wireless innovation company Research in Motion (RIM), The creator of the BlackBerry Solution in 1999, has now revealed a BlackBerry Client for Microsoft Sharepoint.
In addition to being budget friendly, the BlackBerry Client app has many user benefits for individuals and businesses. User benefits include, among other things, app integration with core BlackBerry features and functions and content searches across multiple SharePoint sites.
The complete solution is also great and easy to use for IT departments with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Many fortune 500 companies plan on using the product in the coming weeks.
According to RIM Mobilizes Microsoft SharePoint on BlackBerry, Victor Garcia, chief technology officer at HP Canada, said of the product:
In a world of continuous connectivity, businesses and governments require products, services and information faster and more reliably than ever before. The BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint helps to address the needs of today’s mobile workforce with new tools and mobile applications to enable collaboration and productivity.
Mobile computing remains a challenge for enterprises. The applications such as this one from RIM offer tantalizing promises. Is the hardware up to delivering the functionality promised by such apps? Searching Sharepoint on the go a necessary function, perhaps, a delivered solution, it remains to be seen.
Jasmine Ashton, Oct 11, 2011
HP Sees Autonomy as More Than Search
October 2, 2011
With a new CEO and some bold public relations about how insightful the Hewlett Packard Board of Directors is, I was surprised to learn that HP sees Autonomy as more than search. Since “search” makes up a portion of Autonomy’s broad range of software solutions, the HP way is mostly on a straight track.
After buying Autonomy in August and firing their chief executive last week, it would be an understatement to say that Hewlett-Packard (HP) is going through some changes. Despite obvious flux within the company, HP has big plans for merging the British company’s software with their hardware, they just aren’t search related.
In The New York Times Article Autonomy CEO: We Are Still HP’s Future, Quentin Hardy explained several ways that HP plans to utilize Autonomy’s software that will take place over the next couple of years. One plan, he said, is:
To store a copy of everything scanned and printed by an HP device somewhere in the cloud. That way, for example, a phone camera could read a wall poster for a concert and be taken to a Web site to purchase tickets, bypassing the need for embedded bar codes to store information. Another is to combine Autonomy’s software with that from Vertica, a company purchased earlier this year that does analysis of more conventional structured data, like sales figures, to provide complex analysis of overall corporate performance. This would also be sold in H.P. servers optimized for the task.
Will HP morph into an SAP, IBM, or (my goodness) a Deloitte? I think that HP has made an impact as a company with very expensive ink. I don’t know too much about the personal computer side of the company. Nevertheless, a complete reinvention is worth a shot. Otherwise, HP could become another Kodak, an icon without a clue.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2011
AtHoc at Home in the Pentagon
June 30, 2011
AtHoc, Inc. is the leader in “net-centric” emergency mass notifications. MediaWorkstation.com is reporting they have announced that the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) will deploy AtHoc alerts in order to meet mass notification requirements. We learned from the write up:
Responsible for the security of the Pentagon, PFPA uses the AtHoc IWSAlerts mass notification solution to rapidly send alerts through its IP network to connected computers, SMS text messages to cell phones and voice alerts to office, home and mobile phones. Alerts to computer workstations override the computer screen with an intrusive audio/visual message that describes the threat, includes instructions for taking appropriate action and provides response options via bi-directional communication between the alert recipients and operators. Phone alerts appear both as text (for cell phones) and voice, allowing recipients to respond and indicate their status.
AtHoc is IP-based and integrated within the already working structure of the Pentagon’s systems to notify personnel in case of emergency and has features to insure safety. It is another step in the Pentagon’s remodeling of their Computer Emergency Notification System (CENS) that was created after the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
Sounds like a good idea to me. AtHoc delivers in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, June 30, 2011
From the leader in next-generation analysis of search and content processing, Beyond Search.
Protected: Mavention SharePoint Site Checker Guarantees Top Quality
June 28, 2011
Facebook to Skype Google
May 5, 2011
If true, Facebook is going to Skype the GOOG. Annoying? Not to me. To Google? On the surface, nah. Inside the Google cubicles? You bet. You can read “Facebook Buying Out Skype? $4 Billion Deal Being Talked About” and decide for yourself if the story is on the money. The story asserts:
By the way, if you are looking at going into what the $4 billion ‘possible’ takeover would bring to Skype, let us also take you to a situation where Skype had been mulling over an IPO. If you would remember, the Skype IPO was recently delayed by its new CEO until the second half of 2011. And that public offer would have brought to the Skype coffers only around $1 billion. Considering such a scene, the Facebook move, if at all that bears fruit, could mean a lot to Skype. We also hear Google too is looking at a venture with Skype. More details are awaited.
I will “await”. But with display ads humming along, lots of stateful users who spend hours being social, and now the Skype phone and video conference plus message thing. Wow. If the deal goes down, Google has to do some fancy dancing at this ice cream social.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2011
Freebie
Free Software, No Searching from Giveaway of the Day
April 9, 2011
Giveaway of the Day gives away free software every day. No search required. The company has worked around a traditonal search paradigm and crafted an interesting business model to boot.
One recent from ExtraLabs Software caught our eye. True to the site’s name, though, each deal is only good for a day. The company explains:
“Basically, every day we nominate one software title that will be a Giveaway title of that day. The software is available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by software publisher) and that software is absolutely free. That means – not a trial, not a limited version – but a registered and legal version of the software is completely free for our visitors.
“We pay the software publisher for the Giveaway license, and our visitors only receive those after downloading a special verification program and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, thus protecting software publishers’ interests and making our initiative beneficial for both clients and publishing companies.”
The site provides an app that will inform you of each day’s deal, via email, RSS Feed, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also add a ticker to your web-page or blog if so inclined.
The giveaway we noted was RSS Wizard 4.0. Today’s (3/30/11) freebie is Crystal Office. The catch is that you must install the software within a specific time window. Some of the companies making software available require an online registration process.
The interesting aspect of the site is that search is not needed. We are tempted to mention the registration data and the opportunity for a person using free software to receive marketing emails. Worth a look for some.
Cynthia Murrell April 9, 2011
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
