Online Outfits as Political Power Houses
February 9, 2011
We noted “Google Launches Phone Tweeting Service as Last Egyptian ISP Goes Down.”
The headline that Egypt turned off the Internet has made the global rounds and scared the entire developed world. If you do your research, you’ll find that in the US it will be extremely difficult to shut down the web, especially if Google is your ally. Noor Group, the last surviving Egyptian ISP, was shut down and totally blacked out the web. Maximum PC has the story, “Google Launches Phone Tweeting Service as Last Egyptian ISP Goes Down.”
“Over the weekend, engineers from Google, Twitter and SayNow — a company the internet giant bought just last week — extended a lifeline to the restive Arab country by coming up with the “idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.”
Google and Twitter to the rescue folks! Who would have thought these Internet companies would provide a voice in a time of crisis. While I applaud their efforts, I’m curious where Facebook, Amazon, and Apple are. Why aren’t these online outfits involving themselves in the political affairs of countries half a world away? What happened to search and content processing as an objective activity? Maybe search and content processing are no longer objective? Quite a shift for some, not much of a change for other organizations, however.
Whitney Grace, February 9, 2011
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Is Google Ignoring an Apple Method?
February 7, 2011
Love it or hate it, the Apple iPhone set the yardstick against which smartphones are measured. Microsoft has not slipstreamed fixes to its Windows 7 Phone. Now Google seems to be following the Microsoft path, not the Apple four lane superhighway.
Secure Computing Magazine reports that “Google Fails to Fix Android Flaw” in the newest 2.3 version. Google was aware of the flaw in Android 2.2 last year and promised to fix the defect. When 2.3 was churned out, hackers went to work and easily cracked the patch. Android’s flaw is as follows:
“If a user is tricked into visiting a malicious site, the flaw could let hackers view any files stored on the SDcard, as well as view a list of apps and upload them to a remote server.”
Disabling JavaScript support and/or using a third party browser can avoid the hacking problem. Google has again promised to fix its popular mobile OS in the next version and are already working on a solution, but we’ll see how that goes.
What may be important is that Google has not gotten its chickens in the coop. Another indication of the similarity in management approaches and customer focus between Microsoft and Google? And search? Maybe taking a back seat? Just a thought.
Whitney Grace, February 7, 2011
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Expert System and Esri Tie Up
February 7, 2011
On their site’s news page, Expert System Announces Its Partnership with Esri Italia. The partnership combines semantic technology with geospatial analysis to effectively support richer, improved decision making.
Expert System, a leader in semantic software, and Esri, at the forefront of worldwide geospatial intelligence, should make for a good team:
“The integration of Esri geo-analysis technology and Expert System’s knowledge management and text mining solutions renders geographic search and analysis activities more efficient. As a result, search results discovered through semantic analysis can be visualized in geographic maps derived from the geo-analysis, providing analysts with a deeper level of detail.”
Read more about Expert System here. If you can read Italian, learn about Esri Italia here.
Cynthia Murrell February 7, 2011
Data Deluge Extends to Wireless. No Kidding?
February 6, 2011
CNET News brought to our attention that, “Cisco Sees 26-fold Wireless Data Increase in 5 Years.” Not much of a surprise, but we enjoy prognostications from companies that sell gear to manage high volumes of digital traffic. Wireless carriers are already gaining more capacity with radio and back-haul networks. The big increase is due to mobile data traffic, especially iPhones and Android phones. Users and commercial enterprises are working like beavers to shift from tethered access to the 21st century’s equivalent of a digital Woodstock. The write up suggested:
“This is why the Federal Communications Commission is working to get an additional 500MHz of wireless on the market in the next decade with a plan for 300MHz spectrum to be freed up in the next five years. But adding more spectrum takes time and it will not be enough to solve the capacity crunch that wireless operators will likely face in the next few years.”
Networks will need to learn how to operate more efficiently. Business models, such as unlimited data plans, will probably disappear. Another problem will be tablet PCs, because they need more capacity than a phone. Cisco is now prognosticating with the best of the mid tier consulting firms. One hopes the methodology is better than “let’s guess.”
Whitney Grace, February 6, 2011
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Metadata for the iPad and Its Rich Media
February 5, 2011
If you’re a photographer and an iPad owner, you have no doubt realized that the pre-loaded Photos app leaves much to be desired. See “Expo Notes: Sort Shots iPad App Adds Metadata Features” at Macworld for the solution.
There’s no reason not to use metadata these days to tag and organize your images. Sort Shots, at $5, is an affordable way to do so on your iPad. The article gives details:
“The app now has the ability to use existing metadata and EXIF tags—a feature iPad-owning photographers have long been clamoring for. This update makes it possible to find, order, and show photos and videos according to various metadata such as keywords, date taken, and rating. The sorting tools make it easy to assemble custom slideshows. New ratings, keywords, or file names that are added within the app are kept intact upon export. “
You can use Sort Shots to save custom sorts. You can also sort images by dragging and dropping thumbnails. The app is compatible with Lightroom, Bridge, Capture NX, Aperture, and iPhoto. Can better search be coming? We hope so.
Cynthia Murrell February 5, 2011
Mudoch Daily for the iPad
February 4, 2011
Up front: Haven’t seen it. Don’t care. Write up called “The Daily: Five Things You Need to Know” had a quote to note. Here she be:
It cost $30 million and 100 journalists to produce it, and another $500,000 a week to keep it going. Given the parlous state of the world’s finances, we sincerely hope this is money well spent.
At $2 million a month, that is going to require more subscribers than the entire population of Harrod’s Creek.
Stephen E Arnold, February 4, 2011
Question the Cloud, Question the Experts
January 31, 2011
InfoWorld’s Bill Snyder’s “Beware the Fool’s Gold in the Heated Mobile and Cloud Predictions.” is an in depth analysis of Gartner’s rosy predictions. Finally, a real news publications questions azure chip consultants’ estimates. Let’s hope the critical thinking continues. If you are not familiar with the lingo of Beyond Search, “azure chip” is shorthand for low- or mid-tier consultants, consulting firms that hire retired “experts”, and unemployed journalists, English majors, and Web masters. Each of these groups position themselves as experts, and the knowledge-challenged farm yard animals gobble up the corn and kitchen scraps. Beyond Search has lots of English major and other no-good varmints as well, but, hey, we have to have some fun, don’t we?
Cloud computing and mobile apps are hot topics right now, as Gartner’s research has found. In fact, as portable tools, they go well together.
Though respectful of Gartner, Snyder warns against sinking too much time and money into transitioning to the cloud just yet, especially since analysts have observed inhibited server virtualization.
With regard to mobile applications, there is no doubt that downloads are up and will continue to rise. However, since most are free and the rest are about a dollar, revenue will only be so juicy.
Snyder summarizes the issues:
“I don’t question the trend, but I do question the rate of change. As I’ve said before, the PC era isn’t over — yet — and neither is the day of the enterprise app. We’re certainly moving away from the old paradigms and business models. You’d be blind not to see that. But it’s all too easy to see theoretical money pouring from the skies. . . . Stay skeptical — and beware fool’s gold.”
This article is full of stats to back up Snyder’s opinion. Be sure to check it out.
Cynthia Murrell January 31, 2011
Broken Search?
January 19, 2011
Beer and cake is not a combination I’ve tried yet, nor is it one that sounds even remotely appetizing. Has Google has dropped the ball or turned a blind eye to some clever search engine optimization tactics?
The search giant seems to think beer and cake go together like peas and carrots or peanut butter and jelly. I think it seems more like tuna and a rubber tire but really, who am I to judge?
According to Phil of Phil’s blawg on tumblr.com, there had been several searches for “Cake Central” that yielded a top result of Beerby.com. Beerby is a mobile application that lets users track their favorite beers and breweries, as well as the eateries that carry them. Though they have since corrected the issue, the question of why Beerby was the #1 search result when a user queries for cake recipes and decorating tips remains a mystery.
I am beginning to think that it is difficult to get a set of results from a query that is relevant and on target. I hope I am wrong, however.
Leslie Radcliff, January 19, 2011
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Google and Local Search Commitment
January 17, 2011
Google re-loads and takes aim, this time at Facebook. “Google’s Mobile Matchmaker” reports on an interview with Marissa Mayer, Google’s executive in charge of “local” products. For Google “local” includes, maps, mobile, and even social activities. “Contextual discovery,” giving automatic location-based information, or “search without search” as she calls it, is the basis of the way Mayer seeks to knock Facebook off its pedestal. Google is working on taking the location information and adding social contextual information, such as showing a person in a restaurant the menu with annotations from friends or regular customers of the venue. When asked if Google might work with Facebook on some of these social applications, Mayer demurred, citing Facebook’s closed nature versus Google’s support of the open web. Instead, Mayer pointed to the Google social-esque alternatives such as Google Latitude, an application that follows the physical location of someone on a map. The social implications seem obvious: “Once you tell Google who your friends are on Latitude, that same information might eventually be used for other services like socially marked-up menus, if you permitted it. The point is that Google may have more ways to acquire social information than just by building its own competing social network.” My view is that Facebook may have reached its peak and is ripe for a serious alternative The idea of friends’ LoJacking on Latitude doesn’t appeal to me, but then I’m not a FourSquare fan either. Facebook, watch out, Google’s war is underway.
Alice Wasielewski, January 17, 2011
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X1 Rolls out Search for iPhone
January 14, 2011
X1 Technologies, Inc., has released the new X1 mobile search for iPhone on iTunes. The application requires X1 Professional Desktop Search to run but once installed allows the user to access his / her home pc from their mobile devices, regardless of physical location.
“We know that information workers snatch stray minutes to fit in work when they are on the move. But they often find that their mobile devices lack the files, contacts, or data they need.X1 Mobile Search remedies that problem.”
X1 Mobile Search also enables the user to experience fast-as-you-type searches, offline document storage as well as the ability to search inside of email and the ability to edit documents from your mobile device.
Leslie Radcliff, January 14, 2011
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