Have Your Cake. Eat It Mashed Up
April 12, 2011
The blog Search Nuggets is all about reviewing user experience and business strategy and their latest blog “The Corporate Mashup” is no different. In the blog Marcus Johansson expounds on the need for a corporate search engine that allows users the freedom to search information and receive relevant queries in little time.
In today’s mishmash of business and technology it is important to have an understanding of user requirements as well as technical savvy, such is the case with search engines like Google. The engines are everywhere, even in your toolbars. They’re readily available for users at any time of day and have no problems communicating information between the systems. The problem arises when you put the same search engines to use behind the “corporate firewall.”
“Imagine if you had a common front-end to all those esoteric systems. A solution that lets you search everything at once, with proper tools to dig around in the result set. Even better, a solution that lets you act on the results… You find whatever you’re looking for, and you act on it immediately.”
Because of the strict social restrictions most systems don’t share information and users become bogged down with endless URL’s. that’s where Enterprise Search comes in, it creates a common thread between systems so that you can find what you need, when you need it. Sounds pretty good if you think about it, now if the corporate mash up dream could only be brought to fruition.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2011
Predictive Movie Watching?
April 12, 2011
Ever wish you could bypass the annoying ritual of figuring out just what movie you should rent? Now you can.
According to ReadWriteWeb, Hunch, a predictive entertainment tool, has reached a collaborative agreement with Samsung and Digitas to launch a new interactive social movie watching experience called “The Smart Living Room.”
After a viewer answers a series of Hunch personality questions, The Smart Living Room creates a personalized movie recommendation including the genre best suited for that viewer as well as movie title suggestions. The viewer can then create a movie watching event by inviting friends and family through Facebook or email.
The Smart Living Room uses Hunch’s same movie predicting ability and applies it to television.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2011
Gartner Breaks New Marketing Turf
April 11, 2011
Gartner has a thriving practice in everything to do with digital information. The publicly traded company seems to be sending a message that I hear as “we’re desperate”. Maybe I am wrong but spam from IDG (another researchy-type outfit) that has the subject “Gartner Insight, 3 Top Papers + Win an iPad 2” does not evoke the wood paneled methods of McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, or Bain (yep, the Bain with the now apocryphal kumbaya sessions at a Holiday Inn on Route 128). As wacky as the blue chip consulting firms are, I find email with the words “insight,” “top papers”, and “win and iPad” quite piercing cries for attention.
First, there are not “3 top papers” on offer. The count seems closer to four, but at my age my eyesight is failing. See for yourself whether I got the number four correct:
The other signals that reached me via spam email was the big button that said “Register Now.”
The angle, of course, is leads and input into how Gartner can improve. I also found this enjoinder fascinating:
I will definitely forward the spam message to my one friend, a 70 year old with a beat up truck and a limp.
One positive note: Gartner and IDG got a free mention in a free blog which contains information for which one does not have to register, enjoin a friend, or miscount to access. Of course, the quality of information in Beyond Search is miserable, but we don’t even spam. Heck, we don’t follow up on proposals, return phone calls, or attend conferences where “pay to play” is the new business model.
Objectivity is what one thinks it is, right? And what about search? No white papers about enterprise search? No quadrant? Sigh.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2011
Freebie but no drawing to win an iPad. How is that drawing conducted by the way?
Disappearing US Government Public Information
April 9, 2011
The goose is not going to honk too much about the shuttering of US government Web sites. Most of them get few hits. I know you think that millions of mouse potatoes rush to such thrillers as the US Department of Agriculture’s numerous Web sites or thousands of fact hungry MBAs explore the treasure trove of Department of Commerce content. The reality is that usage is not setting the world on fire.
An outfit called the Sunlight Foundation reported that a bunch of US government Web sites were going dark. The list appeared in “Budget Technopocalypse Deepens: Transparency Sites Will Go Dark In A Few Months.” How do you like that word “technopocalypse”? Felicitous, right?
Anyway, the alleged goners are:
- Apps.gov – Better hurry. Bring your credit card.
- Data.gov—Some interesting but often incomplete data sets
- IT Dashboard – Some spending information. Fascinating for the non economists
- Paymentaccuracy.gov – Love the charts
- USASpending.gov – Keep in mind the $1.6 trillion deficit and you are good to go.
No further comments from the goose.
Low traffic is the norm for most governmental Web sites. One happy exception for the US government is the IRS Web site at tax time. Traffic drops off after April 15th each year.
Coincident with the removal of sunshine data, the US government will notify me of changes in the terror alert level via Facebook and Twitter. Seems a fair trade I suppose.
Stephen E Arnold, April 9, 2011
Freebie
Love or Hate: Amazon and Android Apps
April 8, 2011
Amazon wants a piece of the smartphone app market pie. We read “Today Amazon Locked Up the Android Ecosystem” from ZDNet. The write up takes a look at how the Internet retailer is attempting to annex the Android app market. The author strongly believes Amazon will eventually dominate the entire Android marketplace, driving other competitors out of business. The process began with the Kindle app, then it segued into the Amazon MP3 app. Both generated millions of sales and encouraged Amazon to start its own App Store. Here’s a snippet that caught our attention:
The recent launch of the Amazon Appstore to sell Android apps firmly entrenched the company’s business in the platform ecosystem. One could argue that it is the beginning of a process whereby Amazon takes over the ecosystem, by subtly pushing the Android Market to the side.
Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Amazon were also added Amazon not too long ago and this supposedly increases Amazon’s dominance. What will cement the entire takeover will be a reasonably priced Amazon tablet with compatible hardware/software. The author gushed his love for Amazon, prophesying the company will throw Android out of its own market. Premature prognosis on his part.
The problem is that Android is not really open source. Google is struggling to prevent Android fragmentation. One of the chief offenders may be Google TV pal Sony. Now a mere online retailer is moving into the Google App space. Google may be into open source, but it is now in a position similar to the kid on the playground who owns a basketball but is not picked to play in the pick up game. Time to take the ball and go home or just play smarter?
Whitney Grace, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Down from the Mountain and Being Tracked en Route
April 8, 2011
No need to chop off one’s arm if monitoring goes big time. Now everyone has heard of “big brother” and no, I’m not talking about the television show. Though it used to be just a theory spouted by crazed and deranged individuals who wore tin foil hats and swore they’d been probed by aliens, in 2011 with “the age of the Internet” firmly underway, the “big brother” concept has become a very real, very scary (in my opinion) piece of reality.
According to a report by The New York Times and reported on by Digital Trends, many cell phone companies can and do track your movements without ever divulging to the consumer that they are keeping an “eye” on them. This information came to light after Malte Spitz, a German politician, sued his cell phone carrier, Deutsche Telekom, for information that they had acquired about him. What came out was somewhat shocking but nothing less than any “tin head” could have told us about.
Between August of ’09 and February of 2010, Deutsche Telekom, recorded the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of Spitz more than 35,000 times. The snippet that caught my attention was:
We are all walking around with little tags, and our tag has a phone number associated with it, who we called and what we do with the phone,” Sarah E. Williams, a graphic information expert at Columbia University. “We don’t even know we are giving up that data.”
In the United States it is unclear exactly what level of surveillance is conducted on consumers and what information is saved because companies are not required to divulge the information they collect…though I would argue that the documents are public record and could possibly be demanded under FOIA laws since it is not optional to opt out of consumer tracking initiatives.
Cynthia Murrell, April 8, 2011
Freebie just like a tagged bovine in the feedlot
Google Profile Search
April 8, 2011
We fielded a call about searching for information within Google Profile.
Late in 2008, Google launched its first cut of a tool designed to search the public pages of Google profiles. After perusing “New Google Profile Search”, one sees that this feature has been updated. At the top of the improvements list sit a friendlier interface and the presence of associated links in the search results, from a member’s blog or flickr account for example. It seems an advanced search option for probing relevant details like locations also exists, though I am uncertain if this is part of the new package.
The original blogger notes:
“This feature is not yet enabled in the interface, but you can search Google Profiles by adding &tbs=prfl:1 to a Google Search URL.”
Normally this is the time I begin harping about the dangers of serving personal information on a silver platter, and the ensuing repercussions when a wolf shows up at the table, be it a criminal or a salesman. I will not breech this topic today since individuals are largely chomping at the bit to complete these sprawling profile pages; “to each his own,” as they say.
So, in terms of a resource, Google has successfully made it easier to filter yet another aspect of life. Just in time too, otherwise I may have had to actually talk to one of my friends.
Sarah Rogers, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Google and Its New Management Method: Intrapreneurs
April 7, 2011
I hated the word “entrepreneurship” when I first heard it a long, long time ago. It is fitting for this new Google management method. First, navigate to “A New Perk At Google: Run Your Own Startup Within The Company.” Read or skim the article. Now think about this passage:
Google is desperate to keep good engineers from leaving, but big money isn’t the only carrot it’s dangling in front of them. In some cases, Google is letting them form their own independent businesses within the company — with almost no oversight for two years.
Will this work? In my bug ridden world in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, I don’t think so. Three reasons:
- Google wants to keep engineers. But the engineers want to do some cool stuff for themselves and make a difference or a killing. Assume the idea work and the start up booms. Sounds great. Odds probably are long. So for 100 start ups, maybe the GOOG gets one winner and bunch of okays, and 75 to 80 percent losers. Lots of lost staff time if the management method grows big fast. So there is a productivity issue.
- Many start ups are not sure what they are starting. So lots of idle time and maybe slow ramps. Hey, if someone is providing food, a bean bag, and Odwallas, what’s the big rush? Urgency may not be the emotion du jour.
- For years, Google’s secret innovation engine was R&D from the 20 percent plan. Most looks at the Google skipped over the downside of the 20 percent free time method. Now there’s the no fail start up method. The difference between now and 2006 is that cost control is getting to look like a big job even for the cash rich Google.
Worth watching. If it works, hey, go with it. If it flops, it eliminates one management angle for Facebook to try.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Baidu: Asked to Pay and Baidu Rolls Over
April 7, 2011
Call it common sense, pragmatism, or a desire to eliminate expensive legal hassles.
First, Tim Geigner at techdirt posted “Recording Industry to Baidu: Look, We Know You Beat Us in Court, but Just Do What We Want Anyway, Mmkay?” Since losing their copyright infringement case in Beijing last year, the recording industry is trying the pretty- please approach. The labels sent a letter through the Financial Times asking that Baidu comply with their copyright demands.
The court decision hinged on the fact that Baidu linked to MP3 files instead of hosting them itself. Recording execs are asking the site to filter audio files out of search results. Geigner thinks the recording industry is being a sore looser, and uses a story about the his brother and the last eclair to make his point.
More pertinently, the writer mentions certain differences between China and the U.S.:
“Never mind the cultural differences that may be coming into play here. Never mind that the nominal GDP for the United States is some thirteen times that of China. We want the Chinese to pay as much for their music as Americans, d**n it, and the way to do that is to get Baidu to voluntarily limit their own search results. . . . So, you see, if Baidu would just filter out the infringing content, relatively poor Chinese citizens would suddenly spend big bucks for music.”
Second, we learned that Baidu was a well behaved giant in “China’s Baidu to Compensate Songwriters for Music Downloads.” In my opinion, the key point in that write up was:
Baidu announced that it had made an agreement with the Music Copyright Society of China to establish a partnership to protect legal digital music, and will pay copyright holders to use their music. This will encompass any song that is downloaded from Baidu’s music search site, said company spokesman Kaiser Kuo.
It’s been said before, but the recording industry would be better served by seeking a way to profit from the new reality rather than fighting it at every turn. Baidu, regardless of motivation, avoided some of the legal hassles that have plagued other online services.
Cynthia Murrell April 7, 2011
Freebie
SEO Experts and Content Farmers Face Pandapocalypse
April 6, 2011
Stephen E Arnold, managing director of ArnoldIT.com and this writer’s nominal taskmaster, annoyed some of the SEO poobahs in Manhattan on Wednesday, March 30. Now Mr. Arnold is an old goose and has avoided becoming a Thanksgiving dinner for more than six decades. A little roasting in the Big Apple does not trouble the chief goose.
In his debrief, what was interesting was the reluctance of the Manhattan search engine optimization crowd to realize that the game of metatagging, backlink fiddling, and other SEO “secret methods” are going to continue to loose effectiveness. The shift has a number of contributing factors. These range from Google’s fear of losing online advertising traction to the younger crowd’s penchant for asking Facebook “friends” where to buy a pizza. Google for Facebook revenues. Not so hot for the Google which is in the midst of a giant wood burning stove. (Wood burning stoves frighten the feathered Mr. Arnold.)
We wanted to throw a small life preserver to the SEO experts who were so agitated at Mr. Arnold’s suggestion that SEO was in a heap of sticky tar. Search Engine Watch has published a round up of trick to fool the Google Panda. We love it when SEO articles include the word “tricks”. We prefer phrases like “money burners,” “tom foolery”, and “questionable practices.” But “Pandapocalypse” it is.
As you may know if you were one of the 25 percent of Web sites down checked by the Google Panda algorithm change, Google launched its new pet Panda to curtail content farms and improve its accuracy algorithm. Some web sites are experiencing a loss of Google rankings and traffic, but “Is the Google Pandapocalypse Near for the UK and Beyond?” offers insights to avoid the Panda’s wraith. The most sites affected by the Panda launch were content, health, and e-commerce. In response, Google suggests that companies focus on brand advertisement than relying solely on the search engine to generate traffic.
From this angle, web site proprietors should consider using a paid search, social media, newsletters, videos, and Google news/images. When applied carefully and effectively, each suggestion will bring more visitors to a page. Here’s a snippet for the SEO folks who are trying to explain why those SEO fees produced a negative drift for their increasingly curious clientele:
“One of the big ideas at SES New York was “content optimization.” Google and Bing are looking for quality content. Basically, consider Google a teacher, and your site the student. The Panda algorithm is a brand new grading system, so you must aim to make your site an A, rather than a B or C+. And as with any teacher, some students may not be graded in the same way as others for whatever reason.”
Take a look at your web site and see how it can be improved. Check the spelling and grammar, tone down the ads, minimize duplicate content and links from low quality web sites, fix broken links, and clean up your source code. Following these suggestions will help you overcome Panda and will definitely improve your web site’s quality.
A trick may work, just not consistently. Unfortunately, clients of SEO companies are asked to pay SEO invoices consistently. There is going to be dissonance going forward.
Whitney Grace, April 6, 2011
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