Google Pressures eCommerce Search Vendors
November 6, 2009
Companies like Dieselpoint, Endeca, and Omniture Mercado face a new competitor. The Google has, according to Internet News, “launched Commerce Search, a cloud-based enterprise search application for e-tailers that promises to improve sales conversion rates and simplify the online shopping experience for their customers.” For me the most significant passage in the write up was:
Commerce Search not only integrates the data submitted to Google’s Product Center and Merchant Center but also ties into its popular Google Analytics application, giving e-tailers an opportunity to not only track customer behavior but the effectiveness of the customized search application. Once an e-tailer has decided to give Commerce Search a shot, it uploads an API with all its product catalog, descriptions and customization requirements and then Google shoots back an API with those specifications that’s installed on the Web site. Google also offers a marketing and administration consultation to highlight a particular brand of camera or T-shirt that the retailer wants to prominently place on its now customized search results. It also gives e-tailers full control to create their own merchandising rules so that it can, for example, always display Canon cameras at the top of its digital camera search results or list its latest seasonal items by descending price order.
Google’s technical investments in its programmable search engine, context server, and shopping cart service chug along within this new service. Google’s system promises to be fast. Most online shopping services are sluggish. Google knows how to deliver high speed performance. Combining Google’s semantic wizardry with low latency results puts some of the leading eCommerce vendors in a technology arm lock.
Some eCommerce vendors have relied on Intel to provide faster CPUs to add vigor to older eCommerce architectures. There are some speed gains, but Google delivers speed plus important semantic enhancements that offer other performance benefits. One example is content processing. Once changes are pushed to Google or spidered by Google from content exposed to Google, the indexes update quickly. Instead of asking a licensee of a traditional eCommerce system to throw hardware at a performance bottleneck or pay for special system tuning, the Google just delivers speed for structured content processed from the Google platform.
In my opinion, competitors will point out that Google is inexperienced in eCommerce. Google may appear to be a beginner in this important search sector. Looking more deeply into the engineering resources responsible for Commerce Search one finds that Google has depth. I hate to keep mentioning folks like Ramanathan Guha, but he is one touchstone whose deep commercial experience has influenced this Google product.
How will competitors like Dieselpoint, Endeca, and Omniture Mercado respond? The first step will be to downplay the importance of this Google initiative. Next I expect to learn that Microsoft Fast ESP has a better, faster, and cheaper eCommerce solution that plays well with SharePoint and Microsoft’s own commerce server technology. Finally, search leaders such as Autonomy will find a marketing angle to leave Google in the shadow of clever positioning. But within a year, my hunch is that Google’s Commerce Search will have helped reshape the landscape for eCommerce search. Google may not be perfect, but its products are often good enough, fast, and much loved by those who cannot imaging life without Google.
Stephen Arnold, November 6, 2009
I want to disclose to the Department of the Navy that none of these vendors offered me so much as a how de doo to write this article.
Exalead Nabs ACM Award at the Multimedia Grand Challenge
November 5, 2009
Last year, I had an opportunity to test drive the Exalead video search system Voxalead. I admit that several Exalead engineers bought me lunch and asked about computer use in Harrod’s Creek. I was sufficiently impressed with the Exalead’s engineers to make a short video about the service. At that time, few in the US were aware of Exalead’s system for converting video or any rich media into searchable content. Once converted a user can query the content and see a results list with the exact point in the video relevant to the query available with a mouse click. No more serial hunting.
The lunch was good but the technology was better. Upon my return to the US, I received a number of questions about the technology. I learned earlier this week that ACM awarded Exalead an award for this invention. Exalead told me:
Voxalead News lets you search for keywords inside videos, rather than simply searching limited external information like titles or descriptions. A tremendous timesaver, Voxalead further lets you jump right to the point in the video in which your search term is used! The Voxalead demonstration currently offers search in four languages (English, French, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic) across a select set of news sources.
Since the award, Exalead has received inquiries about the technology from organizations in media, publishing, eDiscovery, competitive intelligence, and social networking.For more information, visit the Multimedia Grand Challenge 2009 Web page. You can also test drive Voxalead News and other Exalead innovations at the Exalabs site.
A happy quack to the Exalead team. Next time I am in Paris, I want another free lunch.
Stephen Arnold, November 5, 2009
The US Army is officially notified that I wrote this article because I liked that Exalead lunch and because I still think Voxalead is one of the most useful rich media search systems I have tested. Yes, a one star French meal makes this goose quite fat and happy, thank you.
Microsoft and Its Data Center Revealed
November 5, 2009
I found the Cnet write up “Inside One of the World’s Largest Data Centers” interesting. The text provided some useful factoids; for example, the giant data center “will eventually occupy 700,000 square feet” and this comment in the story:
Microsoft originally intended to open the Chicago facility last year, but the company has slowed its data center pace some amid the weaker economy and an array of cutbacks companywide.
The plus for me was the inclusion of photos. The detail which interests me was not visible, but the photos provide a good idea of what Microsoft’s approach is at this time. I was able to get an idea about cabling, server size, and device density.
Does the information disclosed suggest that Microsoft has sped past Google’s data centers? Based on what was visible in the article’s pictures, I believe that Microsoft’s engineers have examined Google’s public information about its approach and added a Microsoft twist. The size and density struck me as distinguishing characteristics. Where the rubber meets the road, however, is in the use of automated methods to provision devices and the sophistication of smart software to deal with hot spots, hardware failure, and the other annoyances that crop up with lots of gizmos operate under load.
The write up is one to read and save in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, November 5, 2009
To the US Postal Service: I wrote this without any inducement, including one day mail delivery.
Maybe the Internet Was a Really Bad Idea?
November 4, 2009
I suppose that the last gasp of traditional media is to long for the days before the “Internet”. Read “The Monster Devouring Us.” Do you get the sense that the Daily Mail would be happier when paper was cheap, most folks were illiterate, distribution took place via horse drawn carts, and newspaper distributors were seven year old boys? I liked the line up of evils that the “Internet” has wrought. Even better was the spin that the wizards who created the “Internet” wish they had gone to pub and thrown darts or put that message in an envelope and dropped it in the letter box.
The problem is not the “Internet”. The challenges are more deeply rooted. Technology makes the idea of unintended consequences fun to analyze. I think it will be tough to go back in time, maybe to the halcyon days of the broadsheet. What I thought as I read the article was that if London, England’s newspapers continue on their present track, I will read about the evils of the “Internet” on a blog. Mr. Murdoch and a former official from the lands of the Tsars. Really.
The article has a great photo of the first computer used to send an email. I was hoping for the Web cam that showed the coffee pot at Cambridge University, however.
Stephen Arnold, November 4, 2009
Bet you a dime that no one paid me to write this opinion down. I am reporting this fact to the Administration on Aging.
Google and Cloud Puffs
November 2, 2009
Editor’s Note: I am translating a conference session talk. It could be construed as a pitch for Google. That’s not what Beyond Search does, so this summary is all my own. Just a heads up. Jessica Bratcher
Google’s Michael Lock, director of Americas Sales & Operations, Google Enterprise, gave a spirited talk called “Top 5 Lessons Learned Selling and Marketing Cloud-based Computing” at the SIIA OnDemand 2009 conference, http://www.siia.net/OnDemand/2009/default.asp, in San Jose, CA, on Friday. An admitted former software salesman, Lock had a lot to say, including Cloud=Good, Software/Middleware=Bad. It was a stark statement, and he made a really great argument for apps out in the cloud.
Let me summarize Lock’s five lessons as related to moi. I’m a cloud-based computing Google apps user. Why?
- It’s a free storage system. There’s only so much memory on my laptop. I hate my external hard drive because it was expensive, it’s clunky, and Vista won’t let me copy stuff off of it. I’ve been through at least five thumb drives in the past year. It’s comforting to know that if my laptop were stolen or if my hard drive fizzled again, all my stuff wouldn’t be on it and lost.
- It’s fast to access from anywhere, and in some cases whether I have an Internet connection or not. I can be at home, at Panera, in an airport, or at my mother’s.
- It’s password-secured. As long as I have that password, I can access my stuff from anywhere and from computers not my own. Not that I have a pressing need for data security, but I don’t have to deal with security updates. Every. Other. Day.
- It’s part of a cheap (or for me, an individual, free!) suite of interrelated products. You know how expensive a Microsoft Office Suite is. Ouch.
- I don’t have to deal with learning/using Office or similar software to make my work happen. Lock mentioned the agony of upgrading from MS 2003 to 2007. I felt that pain keenly.
Lock made two strong points in favor of using/buying cloud-based computed related to that fifth bullet: “Legacy vendors will fight to prevent this with their very lives… Microsoft Office generates 16 to 18 billion dollars… they will throw mud, say it’s not secure, say it’s not functional.”
FYI: There are more than 20 million users on Google Apps, from government to higher education to small enterprise businesses that don’t even have offices, servers, or shopping cart software. His other point was that the pace of innovation in the cloud is accelerating. Google had 97 major feature releases in 2009, 68 in 2008. How many major updates has Microsoft had since 2000? Lock said Google has an enterprise vision to make the cloud-based apps broader, deeper, more functional, simpler to use, highly extensible, massively scalable–the figurative sky is not the limit.
Jessica Bratcher, November 2, 2009
Dear Fish & Wildlife Service, I, Stephen Arnold, paid Ms. Bratcher for this write up.
Autonomy Sparks Arcpliance
November 1, 2009
Autonomy has been busy. After receiving a pat on the back from IDC, Autonomy introduced its digital archiving appliance. Appliances apply toaster think to complex software tasks. For example, if you want to crunch real time flows of financial information, Exegy has an appliance for you. If you want to index the data written by an enterprise back up system, give Index Engines a jingle. If you want to index an organization’s content, ring up Adhere Solutions and get a Google Search Appliance. You get the idea. Complex task encapsulated in a search toaster.
Autonomy’s appliance, described by CMSWire in “Autonomy Releases Arcpliance, IDOL-Based Digital Archiving Appliance”, is “a new tool to further enhance their established cloud-based and on-premise archiving solutions.” As I worked through the glowing write up, I noted this interesting passage:
While their Intelligent Digital Operating Layer (IDOL) automatically “understands” how to manage each piece of content, Arcpliance works to archive it without the headache. Developed as a response to shortcomings in Storage Area Networks, Arcpliance utilizes Autonomy’s special split-cell architecture. The grid-based design is reportedly “infinitely scalable” and also combines the power of Autonomy’s Digital Safe, making the tool enterprise friendly.
What I think this means is that Autonomy’s software is smart, a bit like an educated, context sensitive, intuitive human analyst. Autonomy’s approach eliminates the problems that other types of digital archiving systems bring to the table. The smart software uses a “split cell architecture”, an approach with which I have zero experience. The Autonomy solutions—which runs in an organization’s data center, on premises or from the cloud—uses a “grad based design”. Again I lack the expertise to comment on this approach. However, I understand that the method is “infinitely scalable.” I do recall learning in 8th grade math class that the notion of infinite is pretty big and thinking about infinity can drive some folks up a wall, an infinite wall I might add. So Autonomy’s ability to deploy a system that is infinitely scalable raises a bit of a logical pickle but I think that phrase is a bit of over enthusiastic purple prose. If not, the Arcpliance is brushing shoulders with the big 
. I would imagine the demo is interesting indeed.
More information is available from Autonomy.
Stephen Arnold, November 1, 2009
The Department of Agriculture needs to know I received no fodder for this article.
TNR and Cloud Based Enterprise Search
October 31, 2009
I received a story called “Enterprise Search & Cloud Computing – A Match Made in Heaven and Implemented on Earth by TNR Global”. I did a quick check of my Overflight search files and noted that earlier this year, TNR reported that it was a vendor offering the Fast ESP search solution. For me the key point in the write up was:
Organizations face managing terabytes, petabytes, even exabytes of both structured and unstructured data. The combination of cloud computing and enterprise search technologies provides viable solutions for companies looking to scale their intranets and public websites. To stay focused on their core business, companies often look for third party technology providers to guide them in the move to cloud based applications and storage. To meet this need, TNR Global, a cloud computing systems and enterprise search integrator, has launched a dynamic new website to help guide content intensive companies.
This is a bold assertion in my opinion. I don’t know enough about the company, so I visit the firm’s enterprise search Web log and note the following three stories:
- A better way to add or update MySQL rows
- MySQL error BLOB/TEXT used in key specification without a key length
- Fast ESP overview.
I zoom to Fast ESP overview and the entire write up is not particularly convincing, particularly in regard to the “cloud”, “heaven”, and “exabytes” words ringing in my ears. Here’s the company’s take on the downsides of Fast ESP:
Well, if the data you need to make searchable has a format that changes frequently, that might be a pain. ESP has something called an “Index Profile” which is basically a config file it uses to determine what document fields are important and should be used for indexing. Everything fed into ESP is a “document”, even if your loading database table rows into it. Each document has several fields, typical fields being: title, body, keywords, headers, document vectors, processing time, etc. You can specify as many of your own custom fields as you wish.
Yep. In the three editions of the Enterprise Search Report that I wrote (2004 to 2006) and my Beyond Search study for the Gilbane Group (2008), I noted some other hitches in the Fast ESP git along.
I will keep my eye on TNR because I am insufficiently informed to offer much of a goosely observation about this company’s exabyte capable, cloud based enterprise search solution. Exabytes. That’s a lot of data to shove around even within an organization. Distributing this stuff is non trivial in my opinion. Maybe TNR has a solution?
Stephen Arnold, October 31, 2009
Educational Publishers, The Google Is Here
October 30, 2009
Google has been making baby steps into the education market. Its enterprise group has been landing sales in universities and in public schools in New South Wales. The Google has a tie up with IBM to goose (no pun intended) computer science majors into coding for massively parallel, distributed systems. Wave is splashing against some educational rocks. Google’s neighbor (NASA) is in the university business with Google and some other interesting partners. If you are not familiar with Singularity University, you may want to read the Wikipedia write up. Finally, for those really behind the curve, watch the videos on Google Video.
Now with some context, you can appreciate the story in the Los Angeles Times on October 28, 2009. “Google Co Founder Sergey Brin Wants More Computers in Schools”. The article included a passage I found interesting:
He [Brin] advocated putting all textbooks on computers, to make for easier access, and for putting high school students to work — writing Wikipedia articles, and teaching technology to senior citizens and middle school students. In teaching, they will learn. Brin spoke today at a conference on Google’s campus, Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age, which the tech company is co-hosting with Common Sense Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. By and large, speakers passionately spoke of the advantages of equipping schools with the latest in digital technology, and of engaging students on their home turf — computers. Google has been relatively quiet in the field of education, but the company is starting to make a splash.
In my Google: The Digital Gutenberg I describe some use cases for Google as an educational ecosystem. What I find interesting is that if I were teaching a class in computer science, I would require no other resources than those available from Google. If I were a publisher of computer science textbooks, I would be asking, “Hmm, what’s my Plan B?” I discuss the business implications in my monograph.
Google’s method is to seep and surround. Once the ground is watered and fertile, new businesses grow. If you think Google’s end game is to scan library books and sell ads with some Web search functions, you are misreading the rather clear writing on the Googleplex’s big white board.
Stephen Arnold, October 30, 2009
The Google once gave me a mouse pad. Does that count as a pay off for explaining how Google will reshape education? I think not but the Railway Retirement Board may, hence the disclosure.
The Cloud Computing Bandwagon and Open Source
October 26, 2009
I don’t think too much about open source software unless a client prods me. There are three reasons:
First, I have some clients who think they are smarter than any other outfit on earth. These folks prefer to “roll their own” even if the technology folks don’t know enough to realize that a financial swamp awaits them.
Second, there are rules and regulations that make it impossible for anyone but the most motivated procurement manager to figure out how to swizzle open source software into certain security obsessed and tightly regulated environments.
Third, quite a few information technology professionals are not up to speed on what’s available. Examples range from the KoolAid drinkers who imbibe IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle flavors. Open source is a not synonymous with job security. Forget technology. The paycheck and health benefits argue for the commercial solutions even if the information technology folks know these solutions don’t work very well. Lousy commercial software is a warrant for job security.
I read the Linux Journal article “Cloud Computing: Good or Bad for Open Source” against the background of these three ideas. The article jumps on the cloud computing bandwagon and then backs into the open source issue. For me the key passage was:
Ideally, what we need is a completely open source cloud computing infrastructure on which applications providing people with things like (doubly) free email and word processing services could be offered. Now, it’s clearly not possible to create the kind of huge facilities that Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building around the world. Not even Mr Shuttleworth, with all his millions, could sustain that for long without charging somewhere along the line. So simply running open source programs like Eucalyptus is not going to work. The trick here is not to fight the battle on the opponents’ terms, but to come up with something completely different. For example, how about creating an open source, *distributed* cloud? By downloading and running some free code on your computer, you could contribute processing power and disc space that collectively creates a global, distributed cloud computing system. You would benefit by being able to use services that run on it, and at the same time you would help to sustain the entire open source cloud ecosystem in a scalable fashion. Collateral benefits would be resilience – it would be almost impossible to take down such a cloud – plus integral privacy if data is scattered across thousands of machines in the right way.
In my opinion, open source vendors are not much different from commercial software vendors. The idea is to hook a customer and then charge for services or extra code ornaments.
The “real” open source folks often have a different motivation factor. But once the market driven forces blow, the ideals of open source may be blown away unless anchored to firmer stuff. The cloud is going to become a proprietary “space” if the present trend set by Amazon and Google continues. Sure, some technology is open source and released to the community. But in my opinion, these companies will use whatever techniques are available to deliver to their shareholders. When money is involved, the ideals of open source are like a fried egg on a Teflon pan. Some bits will stick, but the goal is to move the omelet so it can be consumed. That consumption drive is more powerful in some sectors than others. But money trumps ideals in some organizations and in today’s economic climate, the cloud will not be exempt from proprietary plays from very big, competitive organizations whose agendas are set by the stakeholders, not a group working for the benefit of everyone.
Cloud computing will move forward with or without open source in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, October 26, 2009
You can bet your socks that no open source outfit paid me for this essay. In fact, no one did.
Google Wave Has Modest Amplitude
October 19, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to “Google Wave: Mark Status As Undefined”. The author takes a critical look at Google Wave and makes some pointed observations about how Google Wave stacks up against a former Microsoft employee’s experience and offers some food for thought when that Microsoft executive joined Google. This write up is interesting, but I think it pegs its argument on the wrong wizard. Google Wave is a subset of a larger tech initiative at Google. The person responsible for this initiative is not the former Microsoft executive. Nevertheless, I found the write up a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill commentary about Wave.
Stephen Arnold, October 19, 2009
No money and not even an invitation from the Google to test Wave. Sniff. Sniff. Goose discrimination.
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