Print and the Digital Gutenberg
July 7, 2009
The premise of my new study Google: The Digital Gutenberg is that a new medium has supplanted traditional media. I don’t mean print. I mean video, images, and constructs. The Google Wave is a bundle of Google components that eliminate the need for separate types of communication modes. Wave may or may not work, but whoever pulls it off will be rolling in money and opportunity. Hamilton Nolan, writing in Gawker, reprinted David Eggers email, which is germane to my thesis. You can find the Eggers’ email here. Mr. Eggers wrote:
Anyway. I would like to say to you good print-loving people that for every dire bit of news there is out there, there is also some good news, too. The main gist of my (rambling) speech at the Author?s Guild was that because I work with kids in San Francisco, I see every day that their enthusiasm for the printed word is no different from that of kids from any other era. Reports that no one reads anymore, especially young people, are greatly overstated and almost always factually lacking. I’ve written about youth readership elsewhere, but to reiterate: sales of young adult books are actually up. Total volume of all book sales is actually up. Kids get the same things out of books that they have before. Reading in elementary schools and middle schools is no different than any other time. We have work to do with keeping high schoolers reading, but then again, I meet every week with 15 high schoolers in San Francisco, and all we do is read (literary magazines, books, journals, websites, everything) in the process of putting together the Best American Nonrequired Reading. And I have to say these students, 14 to 18 years old, are far better read and more astute than I was at their age, and there are a million other kids around the country just like them.
I agree. I just think that a new medium will supplant ink-on-paper and to a certain extent other media that are expensive to distribute via traditional means. I have three or four publishers selling my books, and I know that a downturn is underway. My newest publication “Mysteries of Online” will be made available without charge on my Web site. One of my publishers expressed interest in the material, but I am shifting my approach. Call it a test.
Information is not at risk. Certain approaches and business models are at risk. Innovation and experimentation are needed.
Mr. Eggers wrote:
As long as newspapers offer less each day— less news, less great writing, less graphic innovation, fewer photos— then they’re giving readers few reasons to pay for the paper itself. With our prototype, we aim to make the physical object so beautiful and luxurious that it will seem a bargain at $1. The web obviously presents all kinds of advantages for breaking news, but the printed newspaper does and will always have a slew of advantages, too. It’s our admittedly unorthodox opinion that the two can coexist, and in fact should coexist. But they need to do different things. To survive, the newspaper, and the physical book, needs to set itself apart from the web. Physical forms of the written word need to offer a clear and different experience. And if they do, we believe, they will survive. Again, this is a time to roar back and assert and celebrate the beauty of the printed page. Give people something to fight for, and they will fight for it. Give something to pay for, and they’ll pay for it.
My view is that the medium of innovations like Wave may offer an opportunity. The paper “thing” is expensive and becoming an issue for some concerned with the environment. Information is thriving.
Stephen Arnold, June 6, 2009
Another Real Time Search Angle
July 7, 2009
Along with James Bond, urban legends have reached the wireless digital age, but this “legend” is true: there is Spyware for cell phones, and someone could be listening and tracking your every move. Check out this article at http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=9346833&ClientType=Printable that includes confirmation of the legitimate danger of these products by a former military intelligence officer who now teaches cyber forensics at Purdue University’s Department of Computer and Information Technology. While cell phone spyware has been used by the FBI in the past, it’s now available on the open market from overseas. And while the article includes some tips for suspecting spyware and protecting yourself, reading about the possible danger is enough to make you reconsider using a cell phone at all.
Jessica Bratcher, July 7, 2009
Google Certification Baby Steps
July 6, 2009
Microsoft’s “partner” program has been a gold mine. Partners pay to be certified. Partners pay to attend conferences. Partners spend to dedicate engineers to things Microsoft. Google has some partner savvy wizards on its staff, but the company has been taking baby steps to build a really big partner ecosystem. Today’s partners are more like junior Googlers than the Big Deal Certified Gold outfits that Microsoft has in tow.
That might be changing.
Read “Google Sets up Accreditation Programme to Safeguard Site Conversion”. You see words that suggest that Google wants to do good. You see words that dance away from Big Time Certification and Accreditation. I noted this passage:
Google has extended the project by launching the Google Conversion Professional (GCP) programmed to help brands connect with those companies it deems to be the best conversion specialists….Graham Cooke, Google UK senior ecommerce manager, said, “We want our customers to get the best ROI from their advertising. If we’re driving paid clicks to a site but they’re not converting as well as they could be, we want that to be improved.”
For this addled goose, the Google is taking some baby steps.
Stephen Arnold, July 6, 2009
Recommind and Its 2009 Positioning
July 6, 2009
Short honk: I find the shifting and twisting of search vendors interesting. In MetroCorpCounsel.com I learned that Recommind was described as “a leader in search-powered information risk management (IRM) software”. You can read the story “Recommind Survey Finds Global Recession Making Information Risk Worse For Large Enterprises” here. The company landed a new search account described in this way:
Recommind has announced that Seyfarth Shaw LLP has selected Recommind’s MindServer Search application as the search layer powering the firm’s new Microsoft SharePoint portal.
My take is that Recommind is a vendor of search systems. It is describing itself as a leader in a new field, information risk management. Interesting.
Stephen Arnold, June 6, 2009
Lexalytics, Endeca and a Missing Search Box
July 5, 2009
I noted on the Lexalytics Web site a new design. I still lament the lack of a search box on the main page. I find that having to click and fumble is not as helpful as having a search system available to visitors. What makes it more unusual is that on the site I located this item, “Text Analytics – Enterprise Search”. The article explains that Lexalytics and Endeca have a business relationship. I also noticed that Lexalytics is a partner with Microsoft Fast. I wonder if either Endeca or Microsoft might gain from indexing the Lexalytics’ Web site and making a search function available. Google’s custom search engine is also available. The absence of a search box is:
- An oversight which is not positive for a company in the search and content processing business
- A business decision which makes me as a user do extra work
- Political because Lexalytics’ management can’t decide which of the partners’ systems to feature
- Something the addled goose is not sufficiently alert to discern.
I hope the search box makes an appearance soon. The big “add you email box” fooled me until I looked closely.
Stephen Arnold, July 5, 2009
Bing and Fail Over
July 4, 2009
Short honk: I had high hopes for Bing.com and its next generation, high availability data centers. The addled goose is inspecting goose ponds 4,000 miles from Harrods Creek and was not able to access Bing.com’s travel vertical. The goose thought he was at fault. I then read “Seattle Data Center Fire Knocks out Bing Travel, Other Web Sites” and learned that others were at fault. Whew. New acronym need: MGOL or Microsoft Goes Off Line.
Stephen Arnold, July 4, 2009
Ask, Search Marketing, and NASCAR – A Winner as NASCAR Attendance Drops
July 3, 2009
Michael Smith’s “Ask’s Next Question” provides a useful case study of search engine marketing. The story appeared in Sports Business Journal and reviews the Ask.com decision to put its marketing money into NASCAR, a rough around the edges version of the more sophisticated F1 series.
Beer, baseball caps, and barbeque characterize NASCAR, and Ask.com’s decision to build its Web search market share by sponsoring NASCAR was interesting. The approach was not original. The first search vendor to take this approach was Northern Light. That company sponsored a less blue collar race—the Indianapolis 500.
Mr. Smith wrote:
Examining the early returns, and despite the late start and a short 65-day window to conceive an activation program that launched at Daytona in February, the decision to leap into NASCAR seems to have paid off for Ask. Nielsen Online data shows that Ask’s market share has grown from 1.9 percent to 2.2 percent from January to June, although Ask remains fifth in the category behind ever-dominant Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. Another Internet measurement company, comScore, has Ask fourth in the category.
That’s good news on the surface. The reality is that Google controls more than 65 percent of the search market, maybe as much as 75 percent. So, the question is, “How much did Ask.com spend for that 0.3 percent gain?” Another question I have is, “What other marketing opportunities have been lost because of the focus on the beer, baseball caps, and barbeque crowd?” I suppose that’s an unfair question, but it sure is fun to write “beer, baseball caps, and barbeque”.
These folks look like Web surfers to me. © Ask.com. Source: http://sp.ask.com/sh/i/a11/nascar/gallery/Talladega/800/ask_9_800.jpg
Mr. Smith added:
There’s also something about the fast-paced culture of a tech company that contributed to the rapid planning. In Ask’s office, results are measured daily. It’s in the company’s DNA to read and react quickly.
I think I would have said “bet the farm”, not “react quickly”. Ask.com strikes me as a company that has been struggling to find a niche. Lacking the marketing horsepower of Microsoft, the company has tried to find a short cut. No matter how enthusiastic the information in Mr. Smith’s write up, the pay off of 0.3 in share underscores the tough problem older search systems and newcomers alike face. I wonder if WolframAlpha.com will sponsor the English First Division Stoke City Football Club?
Stephen Arnold, July 3, 2009
OECD Data Diving
July 3, 2009
Short honk: Want to explore OECD country data. First, read the BBC story “Exploring the OECD Web Site” then navigate to OECD Explorer. Ideal for those who want short cuts to data analysis.
Stephen Arnold, July 3, 2009
UFC 2010: HTML 5, Air, and Silverlight
July 3, 2009
Mary Jo Foley opened my eyes to a new unlimited online fighting battle in 2010. Her story with a lamentably cryptic headline appeared on June 11, 2009 as “Microsoft .Net RIA Services: Not until 2010.” You can find the article here. He story revealed that Microsoft will try to push its Rich Internet Application technology into the market in 2010. She wrote:
.Net RIA Services is designed to allow coders to bring together the .Net programming model with Microsoft’s Silverlight competitor to Adobe Flash. Microsoft made a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the technology available in March, but didn’t provide any final availability information.
The RIA acronym means stuff like Adobe Flash and Google’s HTML 5 methods. The idea is that a computing device with an Internet connection can look and feel like a traditional application, a DVD player, or an immersive game. The end of shrink-wrap software and the money machine that made Microsoft and Adobe the big dogs each is today is likely to whine and stumble to a limp along, not a footrace.
I want to capture my thoughts about the dust up:
- I think Adobe is the weakest of the three combatants in the UFC 2010 digital slugfest. Adobe’s pushing the envelope with its license fees now. The sudden spate of security problems coupled with the balky nature of some Adobe Air implementations means that whatever cash Adobe has will not be enough to cope with the GOOG and the Softies.
- The Google team has a quasi-open source angle. The Microsoft team wants everyone to get with the Windows agenda, memorize it, and live it. This is a toss up because Google has been stumbling of late with regard to security, government regulations, and that old annoyance copyright. Microsoft is Microsoft, so it is a force no matter how wacky the Silverlight code may be.
- The financial climate, despite the sunny news from TV commentators, looks bleak to me. As a result, each of these UFC 2010 fighters will be ready to rumble. I think fingers in the eyes, low blows, and blows to the back of the neck will be entertaining tactics to watch.
In short, Ms. Foley reminded me to make time in 2010 for this traveling road show.
Stephen Arnold, July 3, 2009
YAGG: Google App Engine Takes a Long Lunch
July 2, 2009
Short honk: Fresh from its criticism of Microsoft’s approach to data centers, Google makes clear its engineering approach to reliability. TechCrunch reported “Google App Engine Broken For 4 Hours And Counting.” That early Google patent document about quality of service may not be in the hands of the App Engine team I surmise. YAGG is the addled goose’s acronym for “yet another Google goof.” Will Google issue another critique of the Microsoft approach today to obfuscate what seems to be a Googley way to bring some fireworks to App Engine users’ pre holiday festivities?
Stephen Arnold, July 2, 2009
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
