Social Networks and Security
June 28, 2009
Short honk: An azure chip consultant took me to task because of my skepticism about the security of social networks in the enterprise. I direct said azure chip consultant to “Study Shows High Vulnerability of Social Networkers”. No study is definitive, but I find the results interesting. One example: “A third of those polled said they include at least three pieces of personally identifiable information in their profiles.” Great for best pals. Not so great for some enterprise tasks.
Stephen Arnold, June 28, 2009
Wall Street Journal Bleeds and Blames the Vampire Google
June 27, 2009
In 2007 I subtitled my Google Version 2.0 “the calculating predator.” The Wall Street Journal apparently found that metaphor too tame, preferring the more Ivy League “vampire” as the appropriate figure of speech. The argument in “WSJ Publisher Calls Google ‘Digital Vampire’ is a rehash of woulda, coulda, shoulda. What is different is the escalation of rhetoric. I used the word predator to emphasize Google’s patience and its knack for waiting for weaker food to wander into its territory. Vampire is in step with the pop trend of mysterious creatures who come out at night to suck the blood of their hapless victims. According to some novelists, the victims of a vampire fall in love with the beasts and willingly expose their soft, blood charged necks to the vampire’s incisors. Maybe vampire is a better metaphor. In my opinion, the victims either ignored the overtures of the Google or ignored the beastie for a decade or so. Now that the “surround and seep” strategy has become too big to ignore, the victims are wailing.
Matthew Flamm wrote:
Dow Jones is just at the end of developing a new platform from which to conduct business on the Web … Imagine this future: the Journal is one of the many newspapers you might buy in one place and with one payment… Watch for it. (The person quoted was Les Hinton.)
Excuse me, I don’t need to imagine this one stop shop. That’s what I have with my Overflight service. When that is not available to me, I have my trusty Chrome equipped with a container sucking info from hither and yon.
I am an addled goose, but I think Dow Jones has been struggling to make electronic information pay for a long time. I recall testing a version of Dow Jones’s desktop software in the late 1980s. Mistake after error took place until the Journal managed to find a formula that stemmed its losses, but the revenue is not likely to pay back the investment in the many tries the company made before it hit a single. Not only has Dow Jones tried to create a global news system in its Factiva unit, the company had to pull that entity back into the company because it was gasping for air. I heard that another high tech content processing unit of the company was on the ropes. The reason is that the methods and technologies of these initiatives were expensive, clunky, and tough to sell.
Like the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal has not attracted an audience that tops the Web traffic charts. I am a subscriber to the WSJ print edition and find the online edition too annoying to use. The WSJ has managed to equal the level of annoyance engendered for me in the online New York Times. So that is an achievement in my narrow view. The newspapers are too big to fail. Where have I heard that before. Other challenges include:
- News magazines like Time and Newsweek are in a tactical shift now horning in on the analysis territory that characterizes the features in the Wall Street Journal but these shifts have done little to blunt the shift to crunch news and analysis found easily on the Web
- The brutal costs inflicted by printing, shipping, and distributing hard copies are not going to be easily contained and online revenues are not likely to cover the cash needs of the online business and the revenue short fall in the traditional news paper business
- Google is only one player that is sucking oxygen, not blood, from the newspaper industry. Google is an easy target because it is lousy at PR, an exemplar of the new business models for some online companies, and rolling in dough that newspapers want to get for themselves.
In an effort to control essentially feature stories that could sit on a shelf for weeks and commoditized stock and bond tables, the Wall Street Journal convinced itself that it was a destination site that would pull a Web scale user base. Wrong. High traffic Web sites are not like the Wall Street Journal’s approach to online information. Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal knows best. Unfortunately the revenue and business model have not gotten the message. Note: the Financial Times has followed a similar path so do not get the idea that this commentary is limited to the Wall Street Journal.
I like it when the old dinosaurs roar against the night sky as the snowflakes fall. I suppose the children of these newspaper executives fully embrace their parents’ views about online information. I wonder where the WSJ execs’ children obtained news and videos about celebrity deaths? I wonder how the kids found the info? I would wager one gallon of Harrod’s Creek pond water that the progeny used other services and never gave a thought to the Wall Street Journal.
Stephen Arnold, June 26, 2009
Kosmix and Its Positioning
June 26, 2009
I have been tracking Kosmix for two reasons. Its approach is in tune with certain demographic’s interest in having everything in one display, which is hard on the addled goose’s aging eyes. Second, the founder may be a fellow traveler with a Googler for a very interesting approach to information. Manifold opportunities perhaps? The two fellows live and work not too far from one another. And keep in mind that one person is a super wizard at the Google. Kosmix, therefore, is on my radar.
The company is on the radar of the San Jose Mercury News too. “Kosmix Tries New Twist on Search to Avoid Google’s Dominance” by Scott Duke Harris explained Kosmix’ market positioning. Mr. Harris wrote:
But Kosmix founders Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, say they know better than to take on Google or anyone else delivering those familiar lists of blue links. As the Web constantly adds information and images — and as smart-phones and social networks like Twitter and Facebook add new dimensions to search — Kosmix, based in Mountain View, is getting attention for its efforts to differentiate itself as a better way to navigate the growing online clutter. To look up, say, wonton soup on the search giants leads the user to a list of blue links, some with photos. Kosmix delivers a multimedia showcase. The page is topped by a Wikipedia summary, and a quick scroll leads to a sizable window for how-to videos, blog commentary and conversations, nutritional data and more. A column on the right includes items like Chinese cookbooks on eBay and 24-pack instant wonton shiitake soup from Amazon. There are also a few “sponsored links” — the advertising that is key to the Kosmix business model.
Kosmix has implemented in its service a number of the features and functions touched upon in various Google patent applications and technical papers. My hunch is that there is more than friendly competition between the Google and Kosmix. How will this dynamic duo party down in the months ahead? Good question.
Stephen Arnold, June 27, 2009
Two Countries Squabble — China and Google
June 26, 2009
In Google Version 2.0 (2007) I spelled out an argument that has been ignored. Now my analysis of Google’s options in China are playing out in real life. I asserted that Google had become a new type of company. In effect, it is operating as a supra national enterprise, which is tough to understand (particularly by regulators) and even tougher to define in terms of existing laws, guidelines and regulations. Few stop to consider that Google is not “anywhere”. To make a conceptual idea more clear, Google could plop floating barges outside a three mile limit and leave it up to its lawyers to explain where a particular computer function took place. You can follow the rest of my analysis if you snag a copy of Google Version 2.0.
Now a series of news stories highlights the squabble between China and a single commercial enterprise. The BBC’s story “Google Access Disrupted in China” makes it clear that Google is being given the digital equivalent of a shot across its bow. In addition to a service disruption, others are reporting that Google is distributing objectionable information.
Now Google has to figure out how to respond to the type of challenge that strikes me as like those issued at the outset of the 100 Years War. Google is not being handled like a mere company. Google is getting the equivalent of nation state treatment by China.
What is at stake? For starters, control of information. Another issue is the shaping of that information. In theory information is neutral. The reality is that information has mass, can be a catalyst, and behaves in weird uranium like ways. Will Google find a diplomatic solution to this problem, or will the company find itself engaged in a long cyberwar. Quite interesting to the addled goose I must say. The Google Microsoft battle pales in comparison with this first real test of a supra national digital entity against a modernizing nation state. How will Google respond? What steps will China take to make Google even more aware of the consequences of its actions within political boundaries? Will China attack Google in interesting ways? How will cultural factions line up? Exciting and new in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, June 26, 2009
Microsoft Search Infrastructure
June 25, 2009
Short honk: Microsoft has hired some Yahoo wizards and now information popped into my RSS reader about Autopilot. You can read Codename Windows’ write up about this program and ask yourself, “How long will it take to complete this project?” and “What is its cost?” and “How much time will be needed to catch up, then pass Google in this engineering sector?” I don’t have answers but Google did plumbing then search. Microsoft seems to be approaching the problem the other way around if this information is on target. Just my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, June 25, 2009
Seeing Crime the Professional Way
June 25, 2009
Most visualization is gratuitous. Where graphic representations are useful is in law enforcement. Crimes are committed by people. People have to be someplace. Putting the data, the people, and the events together makes it possible to “see” patterns. Visualization of crime related information is often a short cut to resource deployment, anticipatory planning, and budget management. You can see some open source, no cost examples in the article “20 Visualizations to Understand Crime”.
Flowing Data did a good job on this write up. Recommended for those who wonder about the value of monitoring. Adding real time data to these visualizations is a very useful innovation that some organizations are now exploring.
Stephen Arnold, June 25, 2009
Rhode Island and Rooster Pricing
June 24, 2009
When a lad in Illinois, I recall visiting one of my relative’s farm. I learned how to kill a chicken. Learned what tough bird meant. Rooster pricing one of the farming Arnolds told me was that a good bird would fetch a pretty penny. The problem was that once a farm had a rooster, two roosters would be a problem. So roosters had a chance of not being worth too much.
I thought about my early rooster pricing lesson when I read “Why A New (And Unusual) Pricing Strategy By A Rhode Island Paper Will Fail.” This quite interesting article explains that a newspaper reader in Rhode Island (lots of roosters at one time) would charge a premium to get the newspaper in electronic form. Paper only was cheapest. Paper and online slightly more expensive. The online newspaper costs about $350 per year.
PaidContent.org’s write up said the idea will fail.
My view is that it might work when someone really needs only that digital version of the Newport (R.I.) Daily News. I don’t agree. The problem is rooster pricing. I think a few people who want only the digital edition will pay. In my opinion, the number of buyers will be as rare as hen’s teeth. A couple of sales won’t pay the bills. In my opinion, bad idea that rooster pricing. This article inspired me to collect my nine mysteries of online essays in one PDF and make the set available without charge. I will announce the download link in this Web log. No strings attached. No registration silliness. Some of that information will offer alternative pricing ideas. Sorry, no rooster option included.
Stephen Arnold, July 24, 2009
Text Mining and Predicting Doom
June 23, 2009
The New Scientist does not cover the information retrieval sector. Occasionally the publication runs an article like “Email Patterns Can Predict Impending Doom” which gets into a content processing issue. I quite liked the confluence of three buzz words in today’s ever thrilling milieu: “predict”, “email”, and “doom”. What’s the New Scientist’s angle? The answer is that as tension within an organization increases, communication patterns in email can be discerned via text mining. The article hints that analysis of email is tough with privacy a concern. The article offers a suggestive reference to an email project at Yahoo, but provided few details. With monitoring of real time data flows available to anyone with an Internet connection, message patterns seem to be quite useful to those lucky enough to have the tools need to ferret out the nuggets. Nothing about fuzzification of data, however. Nothing about which vendors are leaders in the space except for the Yahoo and Enron comments. I think there is more to be said on this topic.
Stephen Arnold, June 23, 2009
A Google Vulnerability Exposed
June 22, 2009
Erick Schonfeld’s “When It Comes to Search Trends, Google Is Lagging Behind Bing” identifies a potential Google weakness. I think TechCrunch is on to something, but I think the visible vulnerability explained by Mr. Schonfeld is a symptom of a deeper problem.
The weakness is an ability to handle what’s new and what’s happening. Mr. Schonfeld, wrote:
As Microsoft tries to take away market share from Google with its new search engine, Bing
, it is battling Google feature by feature. One feature where Microsoft seems to be edging out Google is with displaying recent search trends. This may not be a major feature, but it shows a weakness in Google’s armor.
Mr. Schonfeld presented sample queries that illustrate this issue. The bottom-line is that for the most recent information, I may want to use more than Google. Bing.com is one option and there are the numerous real time search systems available.
My take on this is different. Keep in mind that I think Mr. Schonfeld has identified a symptom, the deeper disease is “time deficiency.” As zippy as the Google system is when responding to queries, the Google is not as fast on the intake and indexing of real time data flows such as those from social networks.
My research has identified several reasons:
- Google’s attention is on its leapfrog technologies such as Google Fusion and Google Wave. Both of these are manifestations of a larger Google play. While the wizards focused on these innovations, the real time content explosion took place, leaving Google without a here-and-now response
- Google is big and it is suffering from the same administrative friction that plagued IBM when Microsoft pulled off the disc operating system coup and that hobbled Microsoft when Google zoomed into Web search. Now the Google finds itself aware of Facebook, Twitter, and similar services yet without a here-and-now response. Slow out of the blocks may mean losing the race.
- Google’s plumbing is not connected to the real time streams from social and RSS services. Sure, there is some information, but it is simply not as fresh as what I can find on Scoopler and some other services.
What we have is a happy circumstance. If Microsoft can exploit that weakness, I think it has a chance to capture traffic in the real time sector. But having identified a weakness does not mean that hemlock can be poured into Googzilla’s ear.
There are some other weaknesses at the Google as well. I will be talking about one at the NFAIS conference on Friday, June 26, 2009. Get too many weaknesses, and these nicks start to hurt. Addled geese have to be very careful but big companies are often too big and tough to be worried about a few nicks. If there are a thousand of them, well, the big outfit might notice.
Stephen Arnold, June 22, 2009
Twitter Tools
June 22, 2009
Now that outfits like the New York Times and CNN have concluded that Twitter is useful when reporting certain events, the Social Media Guide’s round up of Twitter tools may find some use in the newsroom. The round up “The Ultimate List of Twitter Tools” is long, grouped, and quite good. Highly recommended for dinosaurs and new forms of sentient information life. A reminder: there are other sources of real time info as well. Keep those options open, the addled goose honks.
Stephen Arnold, June 22, 2009
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