Xoogler, Management Vision, and AOL
February 3, 2011
I don’t know much about America Online or AOL. The service never hooked me. When the company bought Relegence, a mash up outfit, I was interested again. Then Relegence became Love.com and now I have lost track of what was a quite promising technology.
I read “LEAKED: AOL’s Master Plan” because it promised insight into the alleged turnaround. AOL generated a profit but its revenues were down. At some point the revenues have to go up. Keeping the profit would be a plus for stakeholders.
The write up ran down some basic facts about AOL and its goals. What I liked was the phrase “the AOL way.” I recall the CD-ROMs and the birth of “carpet bombing marketing.” I recall the sale of AOL to Time Warner and the consequent business circus that ensued. Now, I get to learn about the AOL way. I am game.
If the write up is accurate, the AOL way seeems to be focused on content. The idea is that AOL will become 2011’s William Randolph Hearst empire. I recall that Mr. Hearst was dubbed “the wizard of ooze.” Instead of print, AOL will emerge as a media giant built of bits and bytes. Three points from the article caught my attention:
- The game plan for Jan Feb Mar 2011 at this link.
- Staff writers have to do 10 stories per day
- Pick stories that generate traffic, revenue, “edit quality” (I don’t know what this means), and turn around time (maybe stories a person can write quickly and without fact checking or research).
Several observations:
- What happened to search? AOL once embraced PLS, Fast Search & Transfer, and probably other systems unknown to me. I did not see much about search in the AOL way. If you know about search and the AOL way, please, post a comment in the form at foot of this story.
- What will set AOL apart? More shallow content is likely to get filtered by Blekko and then, hopefully, Google?
- Where is that old Google zing? The AOL way sounds like an old line publishing operation to me.
Stephen E Arnold, February 3, 2011
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AOL, Intellectual Rigor, and the Classics
February 2, 2011
I am an old fuddy duddy. I have goslings who call me much worse. I reshelve books out of alphabetical order at the local book store. I tell the people at the local supermarket to alphabetize the list of foods in an aisle. I expect students to read the full text of their text books. How out of touch am I? A lot.
I read “AOL and Mark Burnett Teaming to Offer Cliffs Notes Web Series” and realized that the Xoogler running AOL is not only smarter than I but he is also more in touch with the need of high school and college students. Why read a lousy novel like Barchester Towers. Archdeacon who? Skip the crap in King Lear. Why read a tragedy and discuss the possible parallels with the problems Steve Jobs may face. Get smart about the last Depression easily. Why read? Just click to AOL.com and suck down the summary. Forget reading. Waste of time, right?
Here’s a passage that annoyed me and made me happy that I am too old to care about the under 20 crowd’s understanding of a highly regarded fiction or non fiction book. Carlyle, anyone? I can hear the “Dude, you are wacky?” now. Ah, the passage:
In addition to summing up the plots, Burnett and Coalition will work with Wiley to develop videos that offer analysis, interpretation, and literary criticism.
There you go.
Video.
Is this the Wiley that publishes chemistry texts and accounting information? Nah, has to be an Angry Birds type of outfit. How does one search these new materials? Key words so one gets lots of ads. Pass the popcorn. Lots of time for some folks because I am not sure there will be jobs in the Brave New World. Read the abstract. Short enough to read as one waits for entitlement application forms.
Stephen E Arnold, February 2, 2011
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Information Governance Solution from Autonomy
January 24, 2011
Those in a variety of sectors looking for a better information management solution should read the article “New IDOL Powered Autonomy Records Manager Ushers in New Era of Information Governance” detailing the features of Autonomy’s Record Manager. The product has modules for enterprise, legal, and government customers and includes auto-classification and cloud computing capabilities.
Chris Hathaway, director at local distributor Soarsoft Africa, touts Autonomy’s competitive advantage. “Manual records management tools are just no longer viable amid today’s complex information governance requirements, high volumes of information and the ever increasing intensity and pace of business operations. Autonomy Records Manager offers a solution to this challenge, using IDOL’s ability to automatically understand and apply policies to all forms of information,” he said.
Quality information governance can address a variety of challenges—cost effective e-Discovery, storage solutions, and privacy issues—in today’s complex information landscape. We believe Autonomy’s solution is a good approach in confronting these issues.
Christina Sheley, January 24, 2011
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Exalead Clicks with Olympus
January 21, 2011
Olympus, respected manufacturer of equipment such as cameras, audio devices, and microscopes, is embarking on a relaunch of it’s 47 subsidiary websites around the world. It has chosen to serve it’s customers using the e-Spirit Enterprise Search Module, which is based on Exalead’s technology.
Integrating with the FirstSpirit content management system, also from e-Spirit, EnterpriseSearch promises to:
“. . .allow for much more efficient searching of relevant information than is possible with standard full-text searching. Among the benefits for Olympus are a convenient search interface with fast filter options, personalized search results for protected documents, and integrated search via linked ‘non FirstSpirit sources’ such as the shop system.”
Among Olympus’ challenges are managing content in 30 languages and simplifying editing and administration processes. The company also hopes to represent it’s innovative nature and appeal to their customers’ emotions. We’ll see whether FirstSpirit and e-Spirit are up to the challenge.
Cynthia Murrell January 21, 2011
Is AdWords Losing Its Efficacy?
January 18, 2011
Updated results have been released for the “Natural Born Clickers” study first conducted in 2007 by comScore and Starcom USA that in theory should not leave a smile on advertiser’s faces. The number of internet users who click on display ads in a month dropped from 32% to 16% in just two years. Look out, AdWords.
What this tells marketers is that focusing advertising efforts into coaxing a click out of the internet user is a near waste of time and money. In fact, according to the SVP/Director, Research & Analytics John Lowell of Starcom USA, “A click means nothing, earns no revenue and creates no brand equity. Your online advertising has some goal – and it’s certainly not to generate clicks. You want people to visit your website, seek more information, purchase a product, become a lead, keep your brand top of mind, learn something new, feel differently – the list goes on. Regardless of whether the consumer clicked on an ad or not, the key is to determine how that ad unit influenced them to think, feel or do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise.”
So at the end of the day, even poor results such as these seem to leave the advertising department undeterred at trying to get into your wallet. Click or no click, they will always seek to lure you in no matter the means.
One question: How will search change if AdWords becomes associated with less customer impact? Is a return to the Dialog and LexisNexis approach to search going to come roaring back?
Sarah Rogers, January 18, 2011
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AOL, Search, and Management
January 18, 2011
I miss Relegence.com, a property acquired by AOL and now subsumed into the various consumer services AOL offers. I used to enjoy testing AOL Search. The company once had PLS (Personal Library Software), then Thunderstone, then Fast Search & Transfer, and now I just don’t know.
What is interesting are two stories I saw today (January 17, 2011). The first appeared in the hard copy of the New York Times I get each morning. Well, most mornings. Delivery is a challenge in Harrod’s Creek when the weather does not cooperate. The article explained that AOL was doing well with Patch.com, a locality information service. You may be able to read the NYT article at this link, but, like home delivery in Harrod’s Creek, access can be a hit and miss affair. This is a Kool-Aid story, sparkling with good news. Now Patch.com is interesting because the company was the or one of the founders. See “Tim Armstrong’s Patch to Cash In on Death of Newspapers.” Xoogler Armstrong is the top dog at AOL. I find this interesting and amusing, particularly because the NYT often gilds lilies.
The other interesting story is the dust up between two AOL information services. I don’t understand what the hassle between two Web logs concerns. What does interest me is that Xoogler Armstrong is not able to manage the issue. You can one blog’s view at “Dear Michael Arrington.” You can get the other blog’s angle at “Blog Fight Rules of Engagement.”
My view is:
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- AOL management should focus on making its services and content findable
- The content side of the business may want to brand its properties so what is really a snit among siblings is easily identified as an in-house affair. Do you know what Project Phoenix is?
- The notion that working at Google translates to management expertise gets another dent in its sleek, retro rod exterior.
Just our opinion where the newspapers may not get delivered and the local citizens shoot squirrels with big guns.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2011
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Exclusive Interview: Sam Brooks, EBSCO Publishing
January 18, 2011
We have been covering “discovery” in Beyond Search since 2008. We added a discovery-centric blog called IntelTrax to our line up in September 2010. One of the companies that caught our attention was EBSCO Publishing, one of the leaders in the commercial database, library information, and electronic publishing sectors. EBSCO has embraced discovery technology, making “search without search”, faceted navigation, and other user-centric features available to EBSCO customers. Chances are your university, junior college, middle school, and primary school libraries use EBSCO products and services. Thousands of organizations world wide rely on EBSCO for high-value, third party content, including rich media. You can get the details of the EBSCO content and information services offerings at http://www.ebscohost.com/.
I wanted to know how a company anchored in online technology moved “beyond search” so effectively. I spoke last week with Sam Brooks, senior vice president of EBSCO Publishing. He told me:
As library users have grown accustomed to the simplicity and one-stop shopping of web search engines, EDS allows users to initiate a comprehensive search of a library’s entire collection via a single search box. The true value of EDS is that while providing a simple, familiar search experience to end users, the sophistication of the service combined with the depth of available metadata allows EDS to return extensive results as if the user had performed more advanced searches across a number of premium resources.
EBSCO’s presentation is easily customized. This particular user interface matches the rich options available from such companies as i2 Ltd. and Palantir, two leaders in the “beyond search” approach to information.
The new discovery interface makes it easy to pull together a broad range of content to answer a user’s query. The interface then goes farther. Exploring a topic or following a research thread is facilitated with the hot links displayed to the user. The technology for the user interface is intuitive. Mr. Brooks told me:
By using our EBSCOhost infrastructure as the foundation for EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), the entire library collection becomes available through a fast, familiar, full-featured experience that requires no additional training. Additionally, unprecedented levels of interface customization allow libraries to use EDS as the basis for creating their own “discovery” service. Currently, users can access EDS via the mobile version of the EBSCOhost interface. Further, there will soon also be a dedicated iPhone/iPad app for use with EDS as well.
For the full text of the exclusive interview, navigate to the Search Wizards Speak feature at this link.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2011
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Revolutionary, My Dear Watson
January 16, 2011
One can only imagine what heights AI will reach in say, five years. The exciting news is that there is a glimpse of the future today with the first tangible steps taken by IBM. Per an article on InfoWorld.com, Watson, IBM’s new supercomputer, has been introduced on the game show circuit of all places.
During an exhibition round of “Jeopardy”, Watson faired well against the top reigning human champs, winning by a handy $1100. While literally a trivial endeavor, Watson’s game performance proves some noteworthy achievements. Watson possesses “sufficient artificial intelligence to ably play a game like “Jeopardy” that not only tests the amount of raw data a machine (or human) has stored away, but also an ability to analyze natural language — “Jeopardy” categories and answers contain puns, for example — so as to understand what sort of information is really being requested and to present that information clearly, concisely, and quickly.”
The extensions of Watson’s abilities are far-reaching, including value-adding services to nearly any industry, bringing to the table the power to evaluate huge collections of data and find correlated relationships humans would often miss. The potential for gaining momentum on the cure for cancer has even been tossed around.
So great job, IBM! You have achieved what has to date been the unachievable. Now, if only those pesky kinks in the search on your public facing Web site could be ironed out. Maybe Watson could be put on the case? Does Watson use OminiFind?
Sarah Rogers, January 16, 2011
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Content Freedom Threatened
January 15, 2011
I am not sure if I agree that Apple’s App Store is a threat to Internet freedom. “Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales: App Stores a Clear and Present Danger” voices this concern. I know that walled gardens are in the future. Money flows when folks control the customer. Loss of control of the customer spells trouble at some point in a company’s future. I think it is easier to make money when one has a customer list and keeps it secret.
Content is a magnet, so in order to increase the “pull” of content, walls are a useful architectural consideration. In fact, walls are going up everywhere. Facebook is a big walled garden. Oracle’s database is a big walled garden. Even open source friendly companies are going to need a walled garden. Without walls, an smart 20 something can nuke a business intentionally or inadvertently. Facebook, for example, wants to reinvent or support the reinvention of enterprise applications as social apps and services within its walled garden. How do you think that will work as more Facebook users enter the workforce. Even companies “on top of Facebook” are likely to have some heart stopping moments.
Here’s a snippet I liked from the article about Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales:
The app store model is a more immediate threat to internet freedom than breaches of net neutrality. That’s the opinion of Wikipedia chief Jimmy Wales. According to Wales — who was quick to stress he was speaking in a purely personal capacity — set-ups such as the iTunes App Store can act as a “chokepoint that is very dangerous.” He said such it was time to ask if the model was “a threat to a diverse and open ecosystem” and made the argument that “we own [a] device, and we should control it.”
Walled gardens are not new. As the competitive arena heats in the warm financial gusts flowing across certain areas of the online ecosystem, old style information silos are going to be built inside these walls. The challenge will be choosing which garden is the one to make home.
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2011
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Google and Multi-Community Content
January 15, 2011
I found Google’s patent application US20110010384, “Multi-Community Content Sharing in Online Social Networks” for two reasons. First, the inventors scattered across three Google offices. The participation of the Beijing engineer was interesting. Microsoft also seems to be tapping China for some of its ideas. Second, the invention points to social content federation. Here’s the abstract:
An online social networking system (100) can be used to distribute content within an online social network. The product comprises code for carrying out a method that begins with receiving content to be posted to a host community. Labels (420) are also provided to associate with the content. The labels (420) are used to identify communities in the online social network to which to post the content. Code is generated that, when executed, displays the content on a webpage of the host community, and displays the content on a webpage of each of the identified communities. The content may comprise one or more events, images, forum and topics.
Facebook does; Google describes. Which company has social momentum?
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2011
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