iPad, the Contrarian View
April 4, 2010
Short honk: This is a quote to note and a recommendation to read the full write up from the tech industry’s premier contrarian. The article, “Publishing’s Last Hope”, points out that some “real” journalists may not be presenting balanced reviews of the Apple iPad. I agree. Since Apple has a lousy search system for iTunes, I don’t have much to say about a device I don’t have in my possession from a company with a search system that gives me nosebleeds. Read the full write up.
For me, the article has a quote to note.
So if you drink the Kool-Aid, you’ll be reading Newsweek and Time and all the dying print magazines and newspapers on the iPad. No matter that you are not reading these journals now.
This is an important point. Information acquisition and consumption for certain segments of the population are very different from those my cohort uses. An expensive magazine, whether digital or in print, is not the ringing the chimes of some of the younger readers whom I know. We will know if the contrarian is right or if the companies with expensive content is right in a few months. Exciting stuff.
Stephen E Arnold, April 4, 2010
Nah, unpaid post.
Another Google Should, This Time for Android
April 3, 2010
Short honk: My feathers tingle when people write down what Google should do. I confine my self to questions and observations. The addled goose gets nervous around woulda coulda shoulda types. The write up “How Android Can Compete with Apple’s Third Party iPad Apps” asserted:
Another tip: Google should set up application design guidelines for each platform so things don’t look all wonky when jumping from one app to an other on a particular platform. I’m thinking… anything less than what I’ve described above would make Android a complete mess in terms of cross-device usability.
Great idea and I explain an even more challenging task for Google developers in my KMWorld column I submitted a day ago. It is quite difficult to locate information for Google’s code snippets for various device initiatives. I don’t use “should”. I just point out that Google’s approach is not mature, a synonym for very confusing. I think the column will run in May or June 2010, and it will be available on the KMWorld Web site.
Stephen E Arnold, April 3, 2010
Because I get money from Info Today, I suppose this is a sponsored article about myself.
Search Utility for Mobile Users
April 2, 2010
In the early days of personal computers, utilities were a big deal. Not so much now. Microsoft Windows includes many useful features which made utilities drop off my radar. I am not sure if a trend is building, but I wanted to call your attention to “ACTRocket 1.3 Web Search Shortcuts for iPhone and iPod Touch.” Presumably the app will be compatible with the frenzy-inducing iPad that has the gliterati cheering.
What struck me is that this utility is “pre-configured [to work] with many popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) as ell as a large selection of Web sites (Wikipedia, IMBb, Twitter, eBay, Flickr.) The idea is that this app gives a user quick access to search, shortcuts to select a particular search engine, a history of queries, and smarts to allow the user to explore search results within an application. You can get more information from Houdah Software, an outfit in Switzerland.
I think the notion of utilities for finding information may be a good one. I want to monitor what other search-related apps surface.
Stephen E Arnold, April 2, 2010
A freebie. No one paid us to write this.
Mindbreeze Goes Mobile
April 2, 2010
Fabasoft has rolled out a new add-on to allow licensed users to search via a smartphone or other mobile device.
I spoke with Michael Hadrian, the managing director of Fabasoft Distribution in Linz, Austria. Fabasoft is the holding company of Mindbreeze enterprise search system. In that conversation, I picked up two interesting insights into the Fabasoft Mindbreeze push into the market for enterprise search.
Mindbreeze Enterprise Mobile result list.
First, the Mindbreeze search technology, recently profiled in a consultant’s report, is now available as a cloud-based service. The idea is to shift from an on-premises installation to one that Fabasoft / Mindbreeze can provision and operate from the cloud. Mr. Hadrian told me, “The major benefits are achieving business related results faster and reducing the burden on an organization’s internal information technology resources.”
Second, a Mindbreeze licensee gains access to the company’s mobile interface. The idea is that a worker, regardless of his / her location, can use the Fabasoft Mindbreeze products to locate information in a wide range of sources processed by the Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise system. These range from the standard Microsoft Office file types to more proprietary repositories such as those used by Lotus Domino / Notes customers.
A mobile search metadata display.
Data Phase Change: Mobile Outpaces Voice Traffic
March 25, 2010
Short honk: “Mobile Data Overtakes Voice Traffic” documents what I had heard at a conference on March 22, 2010. The key point for me was the subtitle: “Facebook is more popular than talking.” The actual factoids are useful for supporting an argument with those who think that computing is a tethered affair. Example:
he data, which was collected during December 2009, showed that data traffic has ballooned by 280 per cent within the past two years. The tipping point for data traffic was 140,000 Terabytes or, if you prefer the marketeers, conversion, 140 Petabytes per month. Although that figure sounds vast, doing some back of the envelope calculations it works out to around 8 bits per second, not exactly broadband speeds. We got that figure by using last year’s UN mobile subscription figures, which put the number at 4.1 billion mobile subscribers and coupled that to a nominal 30-day month.
So the trend is clear. Now what?
Stephen E Arnold, March 25, 2010
A free write up. I will report this to whomever I see when I am next in Washington. Maybe a Verizon employee? Maybe the cookie vendor in Union Station? Probably not a person with a wireless device.
The Open Source Card in Apple HTC Dust Up
March 17, 2010
The goslings and I are not attorneys. We are addled geese, and we do not understand the ins and outs of litigation. The article “Apple’s HTC Patent Lawsuit Is a Bluff” presented some angles on the Apple HTC patent matter. HTC seems to be a more convenient target than Google because HTC is manufacturing Android phones. These devices have some shared DNA with Apple’s iPhone. The write up suggests that Apple is engaging in some saber rattling. Litigation is expensive and risky, particularly if the parties cannot reach an out of court settlement. Juries can be darned exciting. For me, the most surprisingly passage in the write up was:
Android’s open-source status creates all kinds of logistical and legal problems for Apple. The company really doesn’t want to be labeled with a big Scarlet Letter as an open-source opponent. Apple has benefitted from open-source community development. It’s a vocal group Apple doesn’t want to piss off. Then there are all the nasty legal issues and potentially damaging precedents should Apple make a frontal open-source assault.
Android, as new Googler Tim Bray pointed out recently, is not about open source. The idea is that Apple does not want to be hoisted on the open source noose.
My view is that open source is becoming a highly charged phrase. Marketers, programmers, and investors have their own view of the concept. If the write up is correct, will Google use its open source approach to create more problems for Apple? There are some advantages associated with open source. But there are also some advantages associated with the proprietary approaches taken by companies like Apple.
Open source “plays” have a dual nature. Viewed one way, open source decreases the “lock in” that most vendors covet. Viewed another, open source could be a kinder, gentler form of getting people into a more spacious walled garden.
One thing is certain. The Apple patent matter will be with us for many months and there will be twists and turns as Apple builds out its server centers, gets serious about search, and expands into cloud services for its chain of devices.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2010
Free. The bane of real journalists. I did this without compensation or the hope thereof, and I will report this to the event manager at the National Press Club.
More XML Expertise to Google
March 16, 2010
According to ZDNet, Tim Bray, founder of OpenText and collaborator with Ramanathan Guha on things XML, is now a Googler. The story “Ex-Sun Director Bray Joins Google’s Android Team” notes that Mr. Bray will work on the Android. The addled goose wants to point out that there are some big semantic Web guns in the Google arsenal now. Is Google becoming the big gun in the semantic Web or just the semantic Web?
Stephen E Arnold, March 16, 2010
Nope, a free one. No one paid me to reference semantic weapons. I will report this free write up to the FCC.
Microsoft Bing on Motorola Phones
March 12, 2010
Motorola has had its share of troubles, legal, financial, and technical. Not long after its Android powered phones rolled out, Google débuted its Android phone with a fresher version of the Android software. “Motorola to Put Bing Search on Android Phones”, if accurate, provides a little insight into how Motorola wants to show the Google who is in charge. If I buy an Android phone, the mobile search default is Microsoft’s Bing.com. For me the most interesting comment in the write up was:
Motorola will start loading Microsoft’s search and map services onto its Android smartphones in China, bringing more non-Google services to the phones amid a row between Google and China.
It might be a simple jersey tug in the soccer match between Google and Motorola. Google’s partners have strange ways of showing their affection. Semi passive resistance?
Stephen E Arnold, March 12, 2010
Nope. Nope. No one paid me to write this item. Because it is about sports, I will report the state of non payment to an outfit absolutely against allowing anything to take place without compensation, licensing deals, and consideration—The International Olympic Committee.
Cisco Throw Down: Accelerating the Internet
March 11, 2010
I keep track of the network hardware folks, but I don’t write about them in Beyond Search. Most of my readers are interested in search, content processing, and electronic information. I am pretty confident about what my readers want because I only have two or three readers. One is my assistant and the other two people are actually Internet café terminals I hacked to get my RSS feed. So, I’m unpopular. No problem for the addled goose in rural Kentucky.
I read “Cisco Shows Off Super Router” and because the article gets close to what will be an interesting front in the traditional networking sector’s battle with Google. Yep, I know. Google is a search and advertising company. Save that for the search engine optimization crowd and the azure chip crowd.
The core of the story is the statement allegedly made by John Chambers, Cisco CEO:
“Video is the killer app,” Chambers said. “Video brings the Internet to life.”
The idea is that textual information is yesterday. He is right even though I hate to see the end of an era. I regret the loss of mainframes and the wonderful revenue stream those gizmos delivered to me, but time moves on.
What the article triggered in my thinking was that Hewlett Packard and Cisco had a love spat. Now Cisco is going to find itself going where the money is, and that means into traditional telco land. The problem is that the Google with its own home brew telecommunications capabilities, the stuff it has acquired, and the technology in which it invests is going to a much larger factor in Cisco’s future. I think that may be bad news for Cisco and for some telcos. The reason is that the Google is pushing toward efficient, automated, lower cost methods.
To learn about one of Google’s little adventures, check out my KMWorld column about a company with “wireless networks that simply work?. Who will win the next series of battle in this coming collision of Google and outfits allied with traditional telecommunications companies? I don’t know, but I wager that the “real” consultants, the poobahs, mavens, and self appointed experts will discover this skirmish soon enough.
Stephen E Arnold, March 11, 2010
I was paid for the KMWorld article, but I was not paid for this reference to the KMWorld article. So, this write falls into the category of shameless marketing and self promotion. I love it.
A Fading Buzz
March 10, 2010
Google, like most math clubs, is indifferent to jibes and the comments from lesser mortals. I wonder how long that indifference can continue. consider “Google Buzz Could Have Dominated Location. (And Snuck Up On Facebook And Twitter.)” The write up makes the point that Buzz, which is about 30 days in the rough-and-tumble world of “real” products is, according to the article, “a mess.” I don’t have much of an opinion about Buzz. I leave that work to the young goslings who take to social media the way a young goose does to water. For me, the more telling comment in the write up is:
As a sharing service within Gmail, Buzz isn’t ready for primetime yet. As a location service, Buzz could have been a serious challenger to Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Loopt, and all the others preparing for big launches at SXSW later this week. Imagine Buzz as a location-based iPhone and Android app (or even just a web app). It still could have been linked to your Google Profile and perhaps would have even been a better gateway drug to making Google more social because it would have been a more gradual build-up. And to ensure some usage beyond Google Profiles, Google could have put Buzz in Gmail Labs, as an option for Gmail. As a broken social sharing service, Buzz in Gmail is annoying. But as a location-based stream of check-ins (that people could still comment on and like), it’s potentially interesting.
When I read this I think that Google’s tactical plans are not working particularly well. The issues range from a flawed view of the market to timing and sequencing. With the mounting legal troubles and the push into some tricky consumer sectors, Google’s management may have to step back and ask, “Now what?”
Stephen E Arnold, March 10, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since I mentioned “buzz,” I think OSHA is in charge of noise-related regulations. Okay, I report receiving no money for this item.
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