Anti Search in 2011
November 1, 2010
In a recent meeting, several of the participants were charged with disinformation from the azurini.
You know. Azurini, the consultants.
Some of these were English majors, others former print journalists, and some unemployed search engine optimization experts smoked by Google Instant.
But mostly the azurini emphasize that their core competency is search, content management, or information governance (whatever the heck that means). In a month or so, there will be a flood of trend write ups. When the Roman god looks to his left and right, the signal for prognostication flashes through the fabric covered cube farms.
To get ahead of the azurini, the addled goose wants to identify the trends in anti search for 2011. Yep, anti search. Remember that in a Searcher article several years ago, I asserted that search was dead. No one believed me, of course. Instead of digging into the problems that ranged from hostile users to the financial meltdown of some high profile enterprise search vendors, search was the big deal.
And why not? No one can do a lick of work today unless that person can locate a document or “find” something to jump start activity. In a restaurant, people talk less and commune with their mobile devices. Search is on a par with food, a situation that Maslow would find interesting.
The idea for this write up emerged from a meeting a couple of weeks ago. The attendees were trying to figure out how to enhance an existing enterprise search system in order to improve the productivity of the business. The goal was admirable, but the company was struggling to generate revenues and reduce costs.The talk was about search but the subtext was survival.
The needs for the next generation search system included:
- A great user experience
- An iPad app to deliver needed information
- Seamless access to Web and Intranet information
- Google-like performance
- Improved indexing and metatagging
- Access to database content and unstructured information like email.
Google on the Griddle
October 27, 2010
“Google Faces Landmark Fine for Gross Invasion of Privacy” is an interesting article. Published in the UK Independent newspaper and on the Independent Web site, Google gets grilled in words. The point of the story is that Google may be forced to sit on a hot griddle. Ouch.
The write up said:
Google faces being the first company to incur heavy fines under British privacy laws, after admitting downloading private emails and passwords. Britain’s Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, announced yesterday that he is launching a new investigation into the Street View project, in which Google sent cars around photographing residential streets. In the process, they “mistakenly” collected entire emails and passwords from privately owned computers connected to wireless networks.
My view is that many can see Google as a cash point money dispenser. To unlock the lucre, the StreetView code is activated. Google has been apologizing and changing its policies. I find the Math Club’s approach of controlled chaos amusing, but I don’t think some of the officials in the UK and elsewhere share my sense of humor. I was in the Math Club, and I think that most government officials majored in home economics or social science, not physics.
In my opinion, the killer passage in the write up was:
A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said yesterday: “Earlier this year the ICO visited Google’s premises to make a preliminary assessment of the ‘pay-load’ data it inadvertently collected whilst developing Google Street View. “Whilst the information we saw at the time did not include meaningful personal details that could be linked to an identifiable person, we have continued to liaise with, and await the findings of, the investigations carried out by our international counterparts.· “Now that these findings are starting to emerge, we understand that Google has accepted that in some instances entire URLs and emails have been captured. We will be making enquires to see whether this information relates to the data inadvertently captured in the UK, before deciding on the necessary course of action, including a consideration of the need to use our enforcement powers.”
After 12 years of unfettered frolic, is the twitching hand of regulators grabbing the heat dial for the griddle? One thing is clear to me: Google seems to have a knack for sending different signals depending upon the context. See, for example, “Google Says Whole Emails Gathered by Street View Cars.” The Information Commissioner’s Office seems to have noted the dissonance.
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2010
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Vamosa Acquired by T-Systems
October 27, 2010
Update: The goose is easily confused. T-Systems, not T-Mobile, purchased Vamosa. I think that Deutsche Telekom owns both of these companies. I see a similarity between the T-Systems’ Web site and the T-Mobile Web sites. The clue is the weird color and the dotted lines. I also heard from an ever-so-polite person who enjoined me in several emails to point out that T-Mobile(owned by Deutsche Telekom) did not acquire Vamosa. T-Systems (owned by Deutsche Telekom) did not buy Vamosa. Interesting because this sort of input attracts my attention; it does not diminish it. My question, “Why such a consoluted structure made more confusing with logos, color, and branding? ” Worth poking around perhaps?
And here’s an alleged official explanation from a person representing himself as affiliated with Kelso PR:
The problem is that in the UK, T-Systems and T-Mobile are different companies, owned by the same overall company, Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile is a partnership between France Telecom & Deutsche Telekomm [sic], whereas T-Systems is wholly owned by Deutsche Telekom. Indeed, in the UK T-Mobile isn’t called T-Mobile anymore, and is now called “everything everywhere”. We are fine with you describing the purchaser as Deutsche Telekom (the overall owner), or as T-Systems (the actual buyer of Vamosa), but we would prefer if you don’t refer to the purchaser of Vamosa as “T-mobile”, which is a different company altogether. The Vamosa website has the “T-systems” branding running across the top of it. http://www.vamosa.com/ It’s just a simple issue of accuracy of the information. If you have a look here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/corporate-sme/t-systems-acquires-ip-and-trademarks-from-collapsed-vamosa-1.1063831 it should be clear how this is being reported in the UK. As I say, thanks so much for responding to this.
A number of questions are swirling through my mind. Got that?
Short honk: T-Mobile (TSystems) has acquired Vamosa. I think of T-Mobile as a third string player in the US mobile market and a reliable wireless provider in the parts of Europe I visit. I was near the arctic circle a couple of years ago and I got a T-Mobile signal. T-Mobile’s purchase of Vamosa interested me. Vamosa embraced the notion of content governance, but I think of the company has having software that transform content. In addition to connectors, the company’s strength was moving a big chunk of content from one system into a form that another system could use. Instead of a human slogging through sample documents, Vamosa offered software to analyze, normalize, and migrate content. A person at KelsoPR.com sent me a news release that said:
The acquisition supports T-Systems’ strategic focus fuelling growth by enabling collaboration and mobility. “Executives are looking for innovative technologies that help them reduce the complexity of managing multiple e-channels, which they rely on to drive knowledge sharing and customer transactions. An increasing number of critical business processes depend on the implementation of a secure and consistent governance structure that ensures employees, partners and customers have access to reliable content at all times and across all screens,” said Peter Row, Vice President of T-Systems UK Systems Integration who led the acquisition. “By expanding our portfolio to target this business issue we will be offering a unique end to end solution for customers in the marketplace.” The market-leading suite of products previously developed by Vamosa Limited, automatically tags digital content, cleans legacy data and seamlessly migrates content into content management systems. On an ongoing basis the software technology ensures corporate standards are adhered to and auto-fixes any breaches it uncovers.
I had heard that T-Mobile was thrashing around in search, content processing, and information services. Maybe this acquisition adds some credence to those rumors. I am not sure about the Vamosa connectors. As you know, I am watching the i2 Ltd / Palantir legal matter which seems to be about reverse engineering connectors in order to hook into proprietary file stores. Connectors and data transformation are emerging as interesting functions which warrant observation.
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2010
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How to Cope with Google: Change Your Name, Just Move
October 26, 2010
I find Math Club folks darned entertaining. I recall learning from someone that Google’s top dog suggested that one could deal with privacy issues by changing one’s name. No problem, but not exactly practical. Today (October 25, 2010) several people mentioned to me Dr. Schmidt’s suggestion regarding Street View’s imaging one’s home. The recommendation was, according to “Schmidt: Don’t Like Google Street View Photographing Your House? Then Move,” even more impractical than changing one’s name. In today’s real estate market, most folks struggle to make payments. The cost of moving is out of reach even if there were a compelling reason to uproot oneself. The idea of moving because Google is making snaps of one’s domicile is either pretty funny (my view) or pretty crazy (the view of one of the people in my office).
So which is it? Colbert Report material or an answer that could get you stuck in a hospital’s psychiatric ward for observation?
I side with the Math Club. Dr. Schmidt was just joking.
What’s not so funny is the mounting legal friction that Google faces. My concern is that the push back could impair Google’s ability to do deals. The issue is partially trust and partially mind share. With lawyers wanting discovery and depositions, the two Ds can get even the A student in Math Club in academic hot water. That’s bad for Google, its partners, and its stakeholders. Competitors know Google has lots of cash, but with Apple and Facebook surging, Google can no longer rely on controlled chaos to converge on a solution. Lawyers are into procedures and often lack a sense of humor.
Just move. Man, that’s a hoot. Getting a cow on top of a university bell tower will not elicit a chuckle from me. But “just move.” I am in stitches. Absolutely hilarious. But there is that other point of view… the hospital… the observation thing. Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, October 26, 2010
Google Waffles Backwards
October 21, 2010
Canada is annoyed at the Google. My view is that Google is mostly indifferent to legal hassles from countries. I mean when an enterprise can blow off the world’s largest market, what’s the difference when the likes of maple leaf lovers get annoyed. But there is an interesting item in the story “Google Ditches All Street View Wi-Fi Scanning.” Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
Google has no plans to resume using its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks, a practice that led to a flurry of privacy probes after the company said it unintentionally captured fragments of unencrypted data. The disclosure appeared in a report on Street View released today by Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who said that “collection is discontinued and Google has no plans to resume it.” Assembling an extensive list of the location of Wi-Fi access points can aid in geolocation, especially in areas where connections to cell towers are unreliable. Instead, Stoddart said that, based on her conversations with headquarters in Mountain View, Ca., “Google intends to obtain the information needed to populate its location-based services database” from “users’ handsets.”
No problem in my opinion. My thought is that the Math Club had a plan, a rogue engineer’s code, and some surprised customers. Now the GOOG seems to be doing the type of thinking one expects from a mere MBA. Is this progress? Depends on one’s point of view, right?
Stephen E Arnold, October 21, 2010
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IBM, Oracle, and Google
October 14, 2010
Update: October 14, 2010, 9 30 pm Eastern. We just got off a phone call that offered some interesting spin on the Oracle- IBM pact. This caller suggests that IBM is working both sides of the street. The IBM play looks like a stage kiss from Oracle’s point of view and a real kiss to Google. Google can now claim that IBM is the focal point of contentious Java. Interesting.
“Oracle-IBM Pact Cuts Android Off at the Knees” turns a Fortune 50 tactic into a dream. Sure Oracle and IBM are looking like love birds with little interest in making Google into more than an annoying little brother on big brother’s hot date. Here’s the passage that struck me as edging towards wishful thinking, not the cold hard reality of open source goodness:
That would be a disaster for Android. Apache developer Stephen Colebourne, who’s been following the minutiae on his personal blog, believes IBM cut this deal because Oracle agreed to unblock a logjam in the Java Community Process that controls the platform. As a result, new versions of Java with long-awaited features should arrive in 2011 and 2012. But with no major financial backing for the development of its Java libraries, Android could slip behind and lose the love of its Java-savvy developer base.
One cannot discount the fact that two elephants seem to be engaging in some trunk stroking. But, in my opinion, the “cuts off at the knees” should be “could have an impact on Google.”
I interpret this story and its wishful thinking as a poke at Google. If a company cannot stop Google in the open market, why not resort to some old fashioned for the 50 tag team action.
The world of open source is a quite interesting place. The big companies wiggling into a crowd may have some unexpected consequences. Will Google choose to go through life with no legs under Android? Stakes are rising as the Google disruption triggers some interesting mainstream media comments and some fascinating team ups.
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2010
App Store Developer Perceptions
September 29, 2010
Short honk: If you want some insight into how developers perceived the vendors’ app stores, point your Brower at “What Top App Developers Really Think of the App Stores.” The information comes from a consulting and research company doing business as Open First. I don’t have a good sense of the sample size or of the methodology. This passage caught my attention:
One of the most surprising results was on revenue. The survey showed 81 percent of developers for Ovi Store said they were earning less than they expected, with the corresponding figures being 49 percent for the Android Market and 28 percent for the Apple Store. Unsurprisingly, developers who reported low revenues ascribed this to a combination of inadequate promotion tools, application ranking systems and bad categorization of apps. On the other hand, 48 percent of iPhone developers reported earning more than they expected. So the Apple Store still appears to be the most lucrative for developers.
Suggestive, not definitive, however.
Stephen E Arnold, September 29, 2010
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Google Snagged by Skyhook
September 21, 2010
We are not legal eagles, but the Skyhook matter is interesting.
Our question: Is Google entangled into legal issues because of its size; is it really intimidating others with its power; or is it just too big to manage? This giant Internet entity has been into a few controversies in recent times, and it is now again in the line of fire. “Skyhook Sues Google Over Patents, Interference,” reports the OSNews site, about the hook snagged in Googzilla’s carapace. Skyhook Wireless is a company providing device location determination technology services to mobile manufacturers, something that can ascertain the location of a cell phone within 20 to 30 meters accuracy.
This service is the bone of contention. Google has come up with a similar service integrated with its Android OS. Though both the companies use their own version of technologies; Skyhook relies on cell towers, WiFi access points and GPS, whereas Google does it through Google Maps and Google Latitude. Yet Skyhook claims:
Google violated four of its patents relating to location services.” But there’s more behind the curtain, as Skyhook blames Google of issuing, “a ‘stop-ship’ order for Motorola Android devices using Skyhook’s technologies,” claims the news report. The Motorola Android-based Smartphone were to use Skyhook’s XPS location technology starting April this year, reveals Skyhook, and directly accusing Google of interfering, which led to a loss of “millions of dollars in royalties provided under the Motorola Contract.
How much of this is really true will come into light only as the events unfold? Is Skyhook trying to tighten its grip on Motorola? Litigation is expensive and risky. Perhaps this is a misunderstanding or a a simple case of competition. Google, as always, has cash and is an big target.
Harleena Singh, September 21, 2010
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Google Android: Scrambling to Explain the Future
September 17, 2010
As hard as I try, I can’t escape the mobile search world. When you are my age, looking at tiny screens is work. I like big screens, and I like to control the outputs I see. Not surprisingly, I turn a deaf ear and the goose’s tail to the mewlings of those who explain what US telecommunication companies will or won’t do, what the market for a particular fashion item like a smart phone will be in 2013, or why open source forking will screw up the world of tablets.
These are topics that cannot be tamed in a 300 word column by a “real” journalist or “real” consultant. If these topics could, why are the writers at the race track collecting baskets of cash from their prognostications? The answer is that explaining these three topics is backseat driving by looking in a rear view mirror. Great for Platonists, not so useful to those trying to figure out what is going on in the mobile space.
Let me highlight three examples of fortune telling and offer a different view on the mobile revolution.
The first example is “A Massive War Is Approaching as the Table Market Cannot Sustain Six Platforms.” I agree that six consumer centric operating systems is too many, but on the other hand, maybe it is too few. From the US perspective, the ideal number will be one near monopoly with two thirds of the market and two weak sisters who share another 20 percent of the market. The cats and dogs can fight over the remaining share. Why? This is how the auto industry, the airline industry, and the snack industry works in the US. The problem is that the “winner” in the segments are tough to predict due to the vagaries of management, legal actions, and the whims of the consumer. I don’t think there is a war coming. I think there is a lot of activity and then exogenous events will shape what happens. The problem is that I don’t think the US viewpoint is the one that will carry today. Unthinkable, right? Well, only if you view technology and products from the point of view of a person who looks at mobile in a particularly narrow way. War? Baloney.
The second example is the write up “Entelligence: Will Carriers Destroy the Android Vision?” Once again, the viewpoint strikes me as narrow. The other issue I have is the word “vision.” I am not convinced that Google has an Android vision. I think that Google has entered a new phase in its corporate evolution, but for the life of me, I see many possible visions for Android, not one. The notion of a telecommunications carrier destroying Android strikes me as silly. The “carriers” use what’s available for their advantage. The purpose of US telcos is to return to the pre-Judge Green state of AT&T and absorb the other telcos. If it makes sense for a carrier to use Android, carriers will. If not, carriers won’t. Google had an opportunity to outflank the carriers. Now Google is seeing carriers in a new light. I think there are financial reasons behind this shift at Google, but the carriers are the carriers. Keep in mind the phrase “Bell head.” It is an important concept when thinking about carriers.
The third example is found in the story “Is There Really Any Value to 3-Year Smartphone Forecasts?” I know the answer. The value is to the azure chip consulting firm who gets visibility for making predictions. The purpose of the forecast is to sell consulting and services. The numbers are of secondary importance.
What I see in these three write ups is insight into the turmoil the mobile sector finds itself. The players are not sure themselves about what will happen. Consumers are mostly acting with local knowledge, unaware that their aggregated behavior will have a significant impact on what will happen. The lawyers are flipping over rocks and looking beneath bushes for opportunities to litigate. The companies are trying to make money and consolidate their position to avoid the fate of outright failure or an ignominious acquisitions which puts lots of people out of work.
What I see is rapid change with many of the actions difficult to predict. From some decisions will come unintended consequences. One example I relish is Verizon’s use of the Android operating system but tweaked to use Microsoft Bing.com for the search results. Why take this action? Humans enjoy keeping other humans off balance, on the defense. There are other examples, but none of these is “war”, involve the excitement of the verb “destroy”, or lend themselves to fitting into a azure chip consultant’s Excel spreadsheet. Lots of variables at play in this mobile/mobile search space. It is a big world, not just a US centric world, however.
Stephen E Arnold, September 17, 2010
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Azurini Line Up Behind Other Azurini to Praise Google Android
September 14, 2010
From coast to coast the azurini (non blue chip consulting firms and their experts) are really excited about a Gartner Group prognostication. I won’t mention the demise of certain “magic quadrants” but I will urge you to read “And Android Will Crush Them All… Eventually!.” You can even get a glimpse of the Gartner future think market share projections. You can see the Gartner data at the link above. What’s projected? Nothing less than the triumph of Android over the pathetic pretenders. Who are the also rans, Also Participateds, and the losers? How about Nokia, Research in Motion, Microsoft, and Apple? Did I leave anyone out.
Now the mobile space is an interesting arena. The appeal of a “free”, “open” mobile operating system is undeniable. But there are some potential trip wires across the jogging track.
- Android exists to help the Google. Those using Android are enlisted in the Google militia. Summer soldiers and sunshine patriots often have second thoughts. Regulations and rules can make some in the militia long for sleeping late and leisurely showers. Open source software can fork and then, in turn, fork and fork again. How long will the Google watch Verizon rely on Bing search? Hmmm.
- Those lawyers just keep catching flights to SFO. The reason is that Google has an uncanny ability to collect lawsuits. Now I know that oodles of money can flummox the great US judicial system. But every once in a while there is a deposition, a non Googley judge, and a law suit that won’t go away. Anyone remember Viacom, Germany, and an annoying SEO vendor in the UK?
- Google has had a tough summer. Instead of surfing from big wave to big wave, Google fell off its surf board. I don’t have a comprehensive list but I do recall Buzz, the Frankfort police’s irritation over StreetView and Wi-Fi, and the weird trajectory of Wave. In the meantime, the Xooglers at Facebook pulled ahead of the Google in traffic. Bummer of a summer.
So what?
Google is no longer a slam dunk. Too many variables for me to dial in. The azurini want to have Google do things that help the azurini consulting business. Consumers, on the other hand, respond to different signals. Those pesky consumers.
In short, Android is zooming along but those trip wires. Oh my.
Stephen E Arnold, September 14, 2010
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