Motorola CEO Admits Open Android Store Can Cause Problems
June 16, 2011
The Android App Store is to blame according to the Computer World article “Motorola CEO: Open Android Store Leads to Quality Issues.”
Sanjay Jha, the CEO of Motorola Mobility. claims that the majority of Motorola phones are returned because of performance issues caused by malicious applications downloaded from Android Market.
Google has an open door policy when it comes to uploading apps to the application store. “For power consumption and CPU use, those apps are not tested. We’re beginning to understand the impact that has,” Jha said.” Motorola has modified its Motoblur application to help better understand applications and their effect on performance. The article asserts:
“Motoblur collects information about customer use of applications and how that use relates to functions like power consumption. We are getting to the place that we should be able to warn you,” Jha said.”
Motorola hopes Motoblur can serve a twofold purpose. Not only will it alert customers concerning malicious acts but it could also provide Motorola with an attractive competitive age in the large Android market.
The criticism is particularly pointed because on June 15, 2011, Google focused more attention on Android and mobile search. If malware or other issues plague the operating system, Google may have a difficult-to-control problem on its agenda.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
The SoLoMo Angle for Google
June 15, 2011
We wanted to highlight a great Google acronym. Google’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, was interviewed recently at the D9 conference and answered some tough questions as reported in SEW’s ” Eric Schmidt on Search Result Answers, Social Failures & Google Offers Launch.”
Opining on topics that “…ranged from a new approach to answering questions in search results, to Google’s social media failures, and the launch of Google Offers,” Schmidt openly admitted responsibility for his flubs, particularly in the social venue. He indicated that Google searches would be evolving from link-based answers to algorithmically-based answers. Mr. Schmidt allegedly said:
The future of Google is “SoLoMo — social, local, and mobile;”
This is a wonderful buzzword and it meshes nicely with the assertion that that Google counts itself among the four top brands of the post-PC era excluding Microsoft.
Google is moving down the me-to lane at the innovation supermarket. The company rolled out Google Offers. This is an online deal service which reminds me of the Groupon and LivingSocial service, the Yellow Pages service, the Courier-Journal’s service, and a number of other online deal plays.
Yep, “SoLoMo”.
Stephen E Arnold, June 15, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Tech Parade: Rain Forecast with Hail and High Winds
June 9, 2011
Oh, oh. Is the tech parade scheduled for a July celebration in bad weather?
AdAge Blogs’ “Affluency: Being ‘Technology-Infused’ Proves Taxing for Affluent” offers the results of a survey that shows how the lives of the affluent have become technology-infused.
While this group has seen explosive growth in smartphone, e-reader, and tablet ownership, the technology has also complicated their lives. Advertisers and media:
“must understand the growing adoption and use of new technology, as well as the evolving “topography” of platforms and occasions. At each point in this topography, [they] must understand consumers’ level of engagement, receptivity to advertising, preferences for apps vs. Web-based content, unmet information needs and much more. And [they] must do it all in an environment in which consumers feel they are facing more complex and stressful decisions than ever before.”
With 30 percent of searches now associated with mobile devices, and, according to Google, 40 percent of those searches local, it’s easy to see how mobile data is having a real impact on purchase decisions. All of this takes on added importance when you realize that the mobile devices are in the hands of affluent households, a market everyone’s chasing.
Too many companies chasing too few customers—could a miserable summer be upon us.
Stephen E Arnold, June 9, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Caller ID and the Smartphone
June 4, 2011
With the infiltration of smart phones, this app was just a matter of time. True Software has created TrueCaller, which brings caller-id functionality to smart phones.
Because it searches “Yellow- and white-pages from around the world,” it not only lets users know who’s calling, it can update phonebook contacts. TrueCaller includes an extensive filter for fraud, spam, and unwanted calls.
While there are other caller-id apps out there, the additional functionality in this one makes it stand out in the crowd. These are features users have wanted when it comes to any kind of phone. It’s a nice example of technology meeting a need.
Another enhancement for mobile findability.
Rita Safranek, June 4, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Endeca Enters the Mobile Search Ring
June 2, 2011
We’re a mobile society; the days of sitting at the desktop and spending hours researching information appear to be sliding away as fast as technology can keep up. There are data which suggest that mobile search is growing more rapidly than Web search. Whether the data are accurate is less important than the perception that the Web is yesterday, and mobile search is tomorrow.
Mobile searching is becoming increasingly popular and while it’s new, the heat is on to offer consumers the fastest, most relevant mobile search experience. Search vendors, in their search for Big Rock Candy Mountain revenue, are charging toward the alleged gold deposits.
Business Intelligence software company, Endeca also is a player in mobile search. EcontentMag’s “Creating a Recipe for Success: Mobile Search in Action,” reported:
…companies need to truly understand the context in which mobile users will search their content. Only then can they provide a search interface and tools that provide results that target those users’ specific queries.
Increasingly utilized as customers make healthcare decisions or automotive choices, mobile users don’t want to waste time searching. Typing in a couple keywords, mobile users want speed, accuracy, and the same information across all channels. Endeca is there seems to be one aspect of the eContent write up.
My view is that mobile search is going to be an interesting twist in the search tornado. Situational search, geographical search, and personalized search may come together to stretch the limits of today’s more traditional information retrieval methods. New form factors seem to invite fresh approaches to finding answers.
Stephen E Arnold, June 2, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Google, Mobile, and Money: Can We Discern a Pattern, Connect Some Dots
May 31, 2011
I woke up early this morning mostly because the crows decided to have a Post Memorial Day celebration here in the hollow near Harrod’s Creek. Beautiful birds. Often their discourse reminds me of data about the success of Android, the lack of success at RIM, and the slow start Microsoft Phone 7 Windows Mobile edition has had. And Apple? Well, even the crows have iPhones in Kentucky.
What I found interesting was more data about the success/failure of Android and Apple in the mobile game. “Nielsen: Android’s Lead Over iOS May Have Stopped Growing” reports that Android is popular “but no more than it was in March [2011].” You can work through the numbers which are based on Nielsen’s survey results. Note that Nielsen is hedging its bets on its results. My experience is that the results are often driven by the needs of marketing and sales and not so much what I want to know.
I want to connect the dots, but I am not sure what’s happening. Source: http://corknuts.tumblr.com/
Here’s the passage I noted on my trusty iPad:
The Android Revenue Rocket and Gravity
May 30, 2011
The Android blast off has been spectacular. In the span of 24 months, Android is everywhere. Poor Apple. Although the company is rolling in dough, its mobile market share has been kicked to the curb by Googzilla. Everything Apple did as an innovator has migrated to the Googleplex. With mobile search accounting for a significant amount of Web traffic, Google is the winner.
Well, that’s what it looks like to some former Web masters, art history major who have become consultants, and poobahs focused on poopahing.
Then there is “Why It’s Harder to Make Money on Android than on Apple’s iOS.” I don’t put much effort into tracking the musings of Time Warner, but I did find this article interesting.
The data in the story came from an outfit called Distimo. I have a healthy skepticism for most sampled data related to anything Webby. You can read the original write up to get the numbers and specific numbers each appears to be.
Here’s the key point in my opinion:
Roughly Drafted’s Dilger, an Apple partisan who clearly has a stick in this fire, suggests that the rapid ascendance of the Android Market is an illusion. Android may be gaining in sheer volume, he says, but not in quality. He quotes the app guidelines Apple issued last September:
“We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.”
Google has no such policy, Dilger writes. “All one has to do is pay a fee and shovel junk into its online listings. Suddenly it’s obvious why Google is ‘beating’ Apple in free titles: 134,342 to 121,845 according to Distimo: they’re only comparing Fart Apps, ringtones and wallpapers. Of course Google is winning in that regard.”
The bottom line on the write up is that Android developers are not exactly rolling in cash–yet. Other observations:
- “Controlled chaos” has to demonstrate that it works better than Apple’s control method
- Android needs to produce some vocal, developers who are rolling in dough before the developers look for more lucrative things to do
- Fragmentation and the telecommunications industry’s penchant for doing proprietary things to benefit themselves reduces Google’s span of control.
Stephen E Arnold, May 30, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
Can Clever Can Backfire in the Google, PayPal Affair?
May 28, 2011
I read “PayPal-Google Lawsuit Reveals More About How Android Market Deal Went Awry.” The article did a good job of summarizing how one giant company did what appears to be standard Silicon Valley recruitment and another big outfit’s letting legal eagles do their flapping and screaming.
Job hopping in America is as much a part of the American way as the Indy 500 where a team can pay to get a driver in the race or donate to Mother Teresa to make her focus her attentions on some other target. (Keep in mind that Ryan Hunter-Reay failed to quality, but we will be in the race because of the “replacement rule”, Mario Andretti, and, of course, his “pull”.)
Is the Google PayPal dust up just a case of Mother Teresa’s approach being applied in a Silicon Valley context? My view: An unfortunate misunderstanding with no relation to the hiring matter of Kai Fu Lee in 2005. See http://goo.gl/YKSh1
In most cases, I would ignore the issue. Google is an online ad outfit which, after 12 or 13 years, is somewhat clumsily trying to diversify its revenue base. After so many fits and starts, I check out the GOOG every two or three days, leaving the day-to-day roll outs (Scribe) and product terminations (Google Translate API) to the writers who contribute stories to Beyond Search and Inteltrax and my other Web logs.
And PayPal? My efforts to make sure PayPal has one version of my name which variously appears as Steve, Stephen, or the fascinating Stephene has driven me from the service. Navigation of PayPal out Facebooks Facebook is weird access methods. I have permanently blocked anything with the string paypal due to my ISP’s inability to cope with the stream of spam sent by whoever likes PayPal more than I.
I must make an exception this morning, however. In the “Awry” article, I noted this passage:
What we had heard prior to the lawsuit from sources connected to the deal is that Google had wanted to white-label Paypal inside Android Market — a condition which would have been absurd for Paypal to accept. There was also internal tension over which group, Tilenius’ commerce team or Andy Rubin’s Android team, would have control over any payments solution inside the app store.
If accurate, this is a cake-and-eat-it-too tactic, and it is very clever. Learn stuff, get the juices flowing, and then consider the question, “Heck, why don’t we just build out own”?
What was left out of the write up was a reference to the Google Yahoo (Overture) dust up prior to Google’s initial public offering. My recollection is that Google settled an allegation of improperly obtaining inspiration from the Overture (formerly GoTo.com) online ad system. The number $1.0 billion is zooming across my radar. Suffice it to say, if I remember an antecedent to the PayPal allegation, it went away after the application of that American folk medicine, money.
With online advertising going up again, if ClickZ is right in its assertion that “Internet Ad Revenues Soar 23 Percent in Q1”, the Google has plenty of cash to hire anyone it wishes to hire, pay almost any amount to make an allegation take a vacation in Capetown, South Africa, and move forward with the Google revenue diversification efforts.
My question: “Why after about 12 years of effort, has Google NOT been able to diversify its revenue base?”
And a related questions: “Why get snarled in another messy, high profile matter where ‘clever’ wanders toward to the line separating Mother Teresa and Arkadi Gaydamak?”
What marks will these probably unfounded allegations against Google leave on the company’s flawless skin? See http://goo.gl/dlrDM
I had a Calvert Course teacher in Brazil in the 1950s who told me, “I would prefer as friend a good man ignorant than one more clever who is evil too.” This sounds like a statement from a drug crazed poet or malaria stricken American earning pinga money by tutoring.
Clever, though. That’s why I prefer old fashioned methods such as a physical wallet and cash money in my pocket.
Stephen E Arnold, May 28, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Azure Chip Outfit Snags Apple Jargon
May 25, 2011
We were amused when we read “The “Post-PC” Era: It’s Real, But It Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does.” We echo leaders and authors with relentless undergraduate enthusiasm. However, when there is a catch phrase from Fortune Magazine’s poster boy for the successful company leader, we toss in more than a casual reference. We wallow, grovel, and whine. Hey, we want the work that flows from our sycophancy.
An azure chip consulting firm (there may be no blue chips any longer) inked a write up describing a post-personal computer era that has desk tops in the horse-and-buggy section of my local horse farm.
We learned that Apple now claims they get a “majority of their revenue from “post-PC devices,” including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. This is a milestone for a company that was originally named “Apple Computer.”
What does this mean?
The consultant explains that PC’s aren’t dead, computer technology is simply shifting from:
stationary to ubiquitous” (computing at your desk vs. done anywhere, anytime); “formal to casual” (on/ off contrasted to always on); “arms-length to intimate” (from your desk to anywhere you go); “abstracted to physical” (mouse/ keyboard vs. voice sensors, camera recognition, etc). These technological innovations fuel social change, and vice versa. As people conduct more of their lives online—shopping, banking, entertainment—we require more computing in more places. The rise of social networking requires real-time connectivity to manage our relationships. And eroding work-life boundaries means that consumers demand devices that can do double-duty in their work and personal lives.”
We live in Blade Runner or 2001, folks. We can’t run and we can’t hide. We await the post pc wave report. Here in Harrod’s Creek we need professional guidance about the life raft, a snorkel, and—most important—our check book?
And search? Nary a word. Irrelevant.
Stephen E Arnold, May 25, 2011
Freebie unlike reports from most consultancies
AtHoc Enhancements
May 20, 2011
IWCE’s Urgent Communications reveals another angle on findability in “AtHoc Introduces New Emergency-Notification Applications.” A purveyor of “network-centric emergency mass notification systems,” AtHoc is adding new mobile apps to its notification platform. These resources make the most of today’s mobile devices as well as broadband wireless networks. The write up said:
What we’ve done over the last several months is develop an extension to our technology that uses the data channels of mobile devices, like smartphones, to communicate and integrate into our system,’ [AtHoc CEO and President Guy] Miasnik said. ‘It provides a much more prominent notification to the end user, including certain alarming sounds and vibrations … that were not feasible up to now as a standalone application. In addition, the new IWSAlerts applications enable location tracking of users and allow them to respond to the message, confirming receipt, Miasnik said.
What a welcome tool!
It’s also an intriguing development to us here at Beyond Search. Search is often too slow; in fact, one has to know something before searching. This is push on steroids, where the information materializes to the people who need it.
What happens to the search vendors reinventing themselves as customer support solution providers? They should look at AtHoc-type methods as a possible complement. In my opinion, key words just don’t work when time is short. Bing, Google, you listenin’. Just askin’.
Cynthia Murrell, May 20, 2011
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