Google Korea Gets Spicy
April 24, 2009
Asia Media here ran an interesting story. The title was “Google Korea Head Blasts Real-Name Requirement”. The publication reported:
The country has obliged Internet users to make verifiable real-name registrations to post comments on Web sites with more than 100,000 daily visitors since April. Google, which is reluctant to bend its principles only for Korea and set a precedent that might affect its business in other countries, chose to avoid the requirements by disabling users from uploading videos and comments on the Korean language site of YouTube (kr.youtube.com), its online video service. However, since the changes are only applied to YouTube’s Korean sites, users could easily upload content by setting their country preference to other countries. This has clearly miffed the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country’s broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, with KCC chairman Choi See-joong threatening a review of whether Google is violating the local law with its YouTube decision.
Is Google getting annoyed that mere governments are putting Googzilla traps in the company’s path? My view is that this incident may indicate an increase in the temperature within the Google pressure cooker. What will happen when the torrents issue pops up in Europe? I think there will be more activity as Google’s desires bump into nation states’ desires.
Jean de la Fontaine allegedly said, ““Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.” I think beliefs are colliding, not technology.
Stephen Arnold, April 25, 2009
Microsoft and Alleged Anti Competitive Actions
April 23, 2009
Slashdot pointed to this European Commission document that contains some interesting information about Microsoft’s alleged anti competitive behavior. You can download the PDF file here. The Slashdot item is here. I don’t know much about anti competitive behavior, but I do know about anti goose behavior. Download the document. Read it. Make up your own mind. A group invested significant time to assemble this 33 page document with some blistering prose.
Stephen Arnold, April 23, 2009
Google and Media: iBreakfast Synopsis
April 23, 2009
Editor’s Note: I gave a short talk at the iBreakfast meeting on April 23, 2009. The organizer—Alan Brody—asked me to prepare a short write up for the audience. I did not have much time, so I pulled together some text from my new book, Google: The Digital Gutenberg plus some information I had in my files. Here is the rough draft of the write up I provided Mr. Brody. Keep in mind that I will be making changes to this text and may be changing some of the examples and wording. Constructive criticism is invited.
“Google is best known as a Web search vendor and an online advertising system. Google as a publisher is a new concept. How many of you know about the financial problems facing newspapers?
It may surprise you to know that Google offers a number of revenue generating opportunities to publishers. These can be as simple as the AdSense program. A publisher displays Google-provided advertisements on a publisher’s Web site. When a visitor clicks on an ad, the publisher receives a share of the revenue. A rough rule of thumb is that every 250,000 unique visitor clicks per months translates into about $200,000 in revenue. Over the course of a year, the Web site yields as much or more than $2.0 million in revenue to the Web site owner. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Another opportunity is for a partner to organize video content, take responsibility for selling the ads, and using the Google system to make the content findable. Google also handles the delivery of the content and the monetizing. The partner who uses Google as a back office can negotiate revenue splits with Google. This is a relatively new initiative at Google and disclosed in a Google patent document. (US2008/0275763 “Monetization of Digital Content Contributions”.)
But there’s more to Google than AdSense and ways for innovative content providers to make money. Much more.
I want to run through some public facing content services and provide a somewhat different observation platform for you to look at Google and the opportunities it offers those who see a potential pot of gold in Mountain View.
First, Web logs. There are more than 100 million of these “diary” or “blog” publications. Some are commercial grade; for example, TechMeme. Others are ephemera and rarely updated. Google publishes more than 70 Web logs about itself. Google owns Blogger.com. Google operates a blog search service. Google has made it possible to hook blogs into Google’s Web page service Google Sites, which is a commercial grade online publishing system.
Second, Knols. A Knol is a unit of knowledge. More practically, Knol is an encyclopedia. Articles are contributed by people with knowledge about a subject. The Knol publishing system borrows from the JotSpot engine purchased by Google from Joe Kraus, the founder of the old Excite.com service. Knols can hook into other Google services such as YouTube.com and Google’s applications.
Third, Google Books. Books is the focus of considerable controversy. What I want to point out is that if you navigate to the Books site and click on a magazine cover, Google has created a very useful reference service. You can browse the table of contents for a magazine and see the locations on a map when a story identifies a place.
Finally, directories. Google operates a robust directory service. It has a content intake system which makes it easy for a person to create a company listing, add rich media, and generate a coupon. If you are in the Yellow Pages business, the Google Local service seems to be encroaching. In today’s wireless world, Google Local could become the next Yellow Pages 21st century style. Here’s a representative input form. Clean, simple, easy. Are you listed?
The White House has gone Googley as well. Recovery.gov makes use of Google’s search and other technology to some degree. The White House uses Google Apps to accept questions and comments for the president. Google’s communications tools appear to be playing an important role in the Obama White House.
What’s been happening since the Google initial public offering in 2004 has been a systematic build out of functions. The core of Google is search and advertising. But the company has been adding industrial-strength functions at a rapid clip. The pace has put increasing pressure on the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo, not just in search but in mindshare.
The challenge Google represents to newspapers in particular and to traditional media in general is an old story. When Gutenberg “invented” printing (at least in the eyes of my Euro-centric history teachers), scribes were put out of work. New jobs were created but the dislocation for those skilled with hand copying was severe. Then the Industrial Revolution changed cottage industries because economies of scale relegate handwork to specialists who served the luxury market. Another dislocation. Google is a type of large scale disruptor. Google, however, is not the cause of the disruption. Google is the poster child of larger changes made possible by technology, infrastructure, and user demands.
Here’s a representation of how one created a newspaper from the early 17th century to roughly 1993, when the Web gained traction. Notice that there are nine steps. Time, cost, and inefficiency are evident. Now here’s a depiction of the Google Local or the Google Blogger.com service. Two steps. Disruption is inevitable, and it will be painful for those unable to adapt. For some, yesterday’s jobs and income levels are no longer possible. This is a serious problem, but Google did not cause it. Google, as I said in my 2005 monograph The Google Legacy, is a company skilled at applying technology in clever ways. Google doesn’t invent in the Eureka! myth. Google is more like Thomas Edison, an inspired tinkerer, a person who combines ideas until one clicks. That’s the reason for Google’s beta tests and stream of test products and services.
Google applies its technology to work around the inefficiency of humans. When I worked at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, then at 245 Park Avenue in the old American Brands Building, I spent my days, nights, and weekends preparing reports. Here’s a figure from Google patent document US: 2007/0198481.
Google continues to push products and services into different business sectors. These waves can be disruptive and often the cause of surprising reactions. A good example is the Associated Press’s view that Google is the cause of problems in daily newspapers. The AP overlooks Craigslist.org, questionable management practices, the rising cost of traditional printing and distribution. Google is successful; therefore, Google is the cause. Its technology is the root of the present financial evil at the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Detroit News.
What Google represents is a platform. For those who choose to ignore Google, the risk is similar to that of the people under this rock. If the rock moves, the people will have little time to move to safety.
Stephen Arnold, April 23, 2009
Google Base Tip
April 23, 2009
Google Base is not widely known among the suits who prowl up and down Madison Avenue. For those who are familiar with Google Base, the system is a portent of Googzilla’s data management capabilities. You can explore the system here. Ryan Frank’s “Optimizing Your Google Base Feeds” here provides some some useful information for those who have discovered that Google Base is a tool for Google employment ads, real estate, and other types of structured information. Mr. Frank wrote:
It is also important to note that Google Base uses the information from Base listings for more than just Google OneBox results. This data may also be displayed in Google Product Search (previously Froogle), organic search results, Google Maps, Google Image Search and more. That adds up to a variety of exposure your site could potentially receive from a single Google Base listing.
Interesting, right? Read the rest of his post for some useful information about this Google service.
Stephen Arnold, April 23, 2009
Pay As You Go Stymies Online Bad Guys
April 23, 2009
I was surprised to learn from PCWorld that “pay as you go” is a method for thwarting online pirates. You must read the story “Pay-As-You-Go a Way around Piracy, Microsoft Says” here. Owen Fletcher reported:
Microsoft could reduce losses from software piracy by expanding pay-as-you-go plans like those it has tested in developing countries, a company executive said today. Charging users as they access services, rather than in one up-front purchase fee, could “take some of the pressure off of the purely licensed model of software,” Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s research head, said in an interview.
The idea is interesting. If you don’t pay, the computer fails to run the application. To make this work, the user will need a persistent Internet connection. The hitch is that my Internet connections (two high speed broadband hook ups) are not very reliable. Even when these are working, we experience issues with Windows Genuine Advantage even thought we pay the MSDN fees, Apple iTunes which thinks I have five authorized computers not two, and various Adobe products that generate such messages as “updated failed to launch” every time I launch Adobe CS2 on a machine with Adobe CS3 installed.
Great in theory. Practice, at least in the near future, is not likely to work in my office. I am even more skeptical about getting this notion working in some of the exciting countries I have had the pleasure of visiting. Moving this notion to enterprise applications like search raises even more questions for me. Microsoft is anchored in on premises technology, so the company has some engineering hurdles to get over as well.
Stephen Arnold, April 23, 2009
Consultant Tells Vendors Not to Push Unneeded Products
April 22, 2009
Now that’s quite a statement from a consulting professional. Many consultants make a living selling and upselling services that clients don’t need, don’t want, and didn’t know existed. Once I fought past the irony of the advice giver, I concluded that a mini trend is building. You will want to navigate to ZDNet here and read “Enterprise Software: Are Customers Being Pressured So Vendors Can Make Their Numbers? here. At this point, you may want to answer, “Yes.” I did. Well, that’s the story. For me the most interesting comment was:
Governor says enterprise customers should get aggressive as well. They can pay more attention what their developers are says, to avoid buying software that will end up as shelfware. Also, many open source solutions may be just as good as their commercial counterparts. And take advantage of the cloud. “Focus more on work and less on dog and pony shows. If its going to take 18 months to decide what platform to adopt you’re doing it wrong.”
I have highlighted the operative phrase “open source”. The financial crisis is going to force organizations to rethink certain technical decisions taken in the past. The trend is open source. The expert delivering this message got the main part buried but at least the idea is there. Oh, put your valuables in a locked drawer when meeting with azure chip consultants. Come to think of it, the suggestion may have applicability in other software related situations, particularly search, content processing, and data management.
Stephen Arnold, April 22, 2009
Hooray the Mainframes Are Back
April 22, 2009
I recall my first computer class in 1963. Trips to the data center, actually the data center waiting room. There were three keypunch machines, one counter, and a couple of people who logged names and controlled one’s life. I figured out that working in the data center was the way to go, but that’s another story.
I loved the whole mainframe game. Clean room, crisp and chill air, and the freedom to run programs any time. None of that “drop off your cards on Wednesday before 3 pm and pick up the output and card deck on Monday at noon.” No way.
Imagine how happy I was when I read “Virtualization Is ‘the New Mainframe,’ VMware Says” here. One statement from the thinly veiled news release is a keeper:
Virtualization is the mainframe for the 21st century,” said Stephen Herrod, VMware’s CTO, at an event to launch the company’s new vSphere 4 software, an update to Virtual Infrastructure 3, at its headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
A new generation of computer science majors get to experience the thrill, the power, the control of mainframe environment. I’m glad it’s back. When I hit the retirement trail, I can moonlight on the grave yard shift in the virtual data center. I think I remember how to wield power over those hapless penitents. Run their deck first, no way.
Stephen Arnold, April 22, 2009
eBay: Another Yahoo
April 22, 2009
I am tired of the Microsoft Yahoo grade school love affair. The Google “dossier” function is old news because the GOOG disclosed similar functions in a patent application containing the Michael Jackson example two or three years ago. (If you are a reader of this Web log, you know that Googler Cyrus [last name withheld by me as a courtesy] told anyone who would listen that I made up the example. I am not interested in how much Yahoo’s revenues have fallen. Not much of a surprise because the Yahooligans are drifting despite senior Yahoo technologists’ insisting that I am wrong and the Yahooligans are right. They aren’t. Now the revenue problem puts the company into flashing yellow light mode.
No Google, no Microsoft, and no Yahoo.
Let’s think about this recent Forbes.com article “eBay: Back to Basics” by Taylor Buley here. The write up does a credible job of summarizing some of eBay’s challenges. I want to be more specific. eBay is a bit like the snail darter. The creature is like Kentucky’s own Townsend’s Big-eared Bat. Endangered.
Here’s my take on the eBay problem which includes some points either deleted, ignored, or known to be too addled for the buttoned up Forbes crowd and their pop up ads:
- Search. The eBay search system does not work for me. Let’s say I want to buy a refurbished Hewlett Packard NC4010 laptop. Try the query. What do you get? The same lousy results I do. Anything with the string. Try to limit to the actual computer itself. Not possible. This problem is sufficiently annoying to make me endure the wackiness of Google Shopping or the Amazon outfit that routinely changes my one click settings. Anything but eBay. The search system is awful in my opinion. eBay tried Thunderstone. eBay rolled its own. I am not sure what can be done to fix the core finding engine. My hunch is that there is neither the money, the desire, or the expertise to pull this baby out of the fire.
- Fraud. I learned a long time ago that eBay works overtime to keep the magnitude of the fraud issue under wraps. I have been snookered a number of times. There was the famous mobile phone play by a person with the alias of Wiguna. I took matters into my own hands, located the Wiguna person, and in person relayed my experience to an individual familiar with the outfit where Wiguna did some work. With this indirect method, I got my money back. I don’t think I am alone. eBay is trying to “do” security but not spending enough management time and attention to understand the magnitude of the problem and then not having enough resources to take action. Too little and too late, much too late.
- Vendors. The actions eBay has taken have angered some folks who sell products on eBay. Maybe this is a replay of the tragedy of the commons. But up the road from Harrods’s Creek, a small eBay service company has shut its doors. The company could not cope with the combined effects of the hassle, the fees, and the fraud. A couple more Kentucky folks have to shoot squirrels to eat I suppose. The cause was eBay, not these honest people who sold my used computer gear for me.
The most recent actions underscore the cluelessness of the company. Skype and StumbleUpon are in play. Skype was a poorly taken decision. StumbleUpon was simply fumbled by inept running backs. The management teams have not been able to take purposeful action, underscoring the fact that MBAs and folks with great personalities cannot run companies anchored in technology that cannot be fossilized. Change has marginalized eBay and now the company is in the same canoe as Yahoo.
Forbes is skeptical. I’m not. I think eBay’s radar is not working. Like a blinded big eared bat, a collision is inevitable.
Stephen Arnold, April 22, 2009
Wall of Shame: Yahoo’s Digital Barrier
April 21, 2009
Short honk: Bloomberg.com’s “Yahoo’s Balogh Works on Tearing Down Wall of Shame” stopped me. Brian Womack’s article here said, “Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said last month that she created a “wall of shame” for products she isn’t happy with. She’s counting on her top technology executive to fix them. Ari Balogh, recruited as chief technology officer last year, added product-management duties in February after a reshuffling of the Sunnyvale, California-based company. Balogh now needs to chart the future of Yahoo’s more than 50 products – – from e-mail to online dating to the search engine.” I loathe the extra clicks I have to perform to see my email. I don’t think too many products is the sole issue. This addled goose believes that Yahoo’s user interface is old, wonky, and annoying. More than cosmetics are needed at Yahoo. With silos and heterogeneous infrastructure, cosmetics may be what Yahoo has time and money to do.
Stephen Arnold, April 21, 2009
GEFCO and Exalead: Win International Prize for Innovation
April 21, 2009
Congratulations to GEFCO, and by extension, Exalead, for winning the Grand Prix et Trophée de l’innovation prize in recognition of innovation in business information management. The trophy was presented on April 7, 2009, by
CIO-online.com, Le Monde Informatique and IT News Info. There’s a video of the awards here ttp://www.trophees-cio.com/ and a PDF profile of the winners and projects at CIO Online.
A leading European provider of vehicle transport, logistics, and other transportation services, GEFCO earned its award thanks to Exalead, a leader of search based business application solutions and information access in the enterprise and on the web. GEFCO won the CIO-online.com trophy for its new vehicle track and trace service built on Exalead CloudView’s platform (You can read about CloudView here.
GEFCO uses Exalead CloudView to drive a search based application engine and real time operational tools for reporting, query, and analysis of the database of vehicles delivered logistics and spare parts management.
ArnoldIT.com interviewed Paul Doscher, U.S. CEO of Exalead, in January 2009, and Mr. Doscher spoke of their partnership with GEFCO then. He stated:
GEFCO is using Exalead to track their vehicles. GEFCO’s new ‘Track and Trace’ application is built upon Exalead’s flagship platform that offers powerful search functionality and can provide up-to-the-minute information from an extremely large data set. You can read the entire interview on the Search Wizards Speak service here.
Jessica Bratcher, April 21, 2009
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