Digg Dug Deep Dip
October 2, 2010
I use an aggregation tool we built called Oversight. You can see how it works with its features stripped away at this link. We look at some aggregation sites at lunch, so we don’t have much first hand knowledge about Digg.com. “Is It Too Late for a Digg Comeback?” raises an important question. For me, this passage seemed particularly interesting:
Whether or not the adjustments and upcoming changes will be enough to bring back some of the vibrant Digg community of old remains to be seen. More new features are likely to be rolled out, including “interests” pages, but not much is known about that or whether users will want it. Rose mentioned the return of user “leader-boards,” which had always been popular in the past. The pagination could mean an uptick in page views, which could do good things for the company’s bottom line and morale. Also, once the site’s API stabilizes, it could mean a slew of new products developed around Digg, as well as more traffic. “Publishers can reliably use Digg buttons and Digg widgets once Digg gets its API up to speed,” said Barrera. “More developers will also be able to create web experiences around Digg data, which means Digg will be able to reach a lot more people than through just their site.”
Changes and technology conspired to create problems for Digg. I thought that zippy outfits in Silicon Valley and San Francisco were able to handle tweaks. I think the idea is agility, flexibility, and adaptability. I was wrong. When a site makes fixes, the same old problems crop up just as they do in more traditional, less hip systems. The idea that big Webby systems are easy to manage is silly.
But the main take away for me is that a hot site can cool quickly. On top of that, annoyed users no longer click away. Those annoyed users fire up their Twitter account and start tweeting. Then blogs jump in. Finally, a serious news outfit like Venture Beat picks up the story.
At that point, it is indeed too late. Online is tough even for the young of heart, living in San Francisco, doing podcasts, and implementing Google-esque management methods. Just an opinion from Harrod’s Creek.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2010
Freebie
Fancy Math Maybe Not Needed?
October 2, 2010
“Search Data ‘No More Informative’ Than Standard Analysis” seems to challenge the fancy math of outfits like Recorded Future, Palantir, and IBM SPSS. How can fancy math fail to wow the researchers? The VC crowd won’t be amused. Palantir scooped up $90 million and for what?
The article asserts:
Tracking web searches worked the best in predicting how a new video game would sell, Yahoo’s Sharad Goel and Jake Hofman said.
Ah, ha. Yahoo. The purple outfit with the revolving door this week.
The Yahooligans said:
“Given the attention that search-based predictions have received recently, it may seem surprising that search data are, at least in some cases, no more informative than traditional data sources…”
One point that jumped out at me was that using third party tabulations such as a list of top tunes worked better than fancy math.
Palantir has 90 million reasons to prove Yahoo somewhat incorrect. IBM may not care. Recorded Future has the support of the Google and In-Q-Tel. Well, Yahoo may have a better way.
Stephen E Arnold, October 1, 2010
Freebie
Yahoo Became AOL, Now AOL Is Becoming Yahoo
October 1, 2010
Neither Yahoo nor AOL strike me as companies with a strong commitment to search. In fact, Yahoo worked hard to become a “free” version of AOL. The company acquired lots of promising outfits and then allowed these to coast along. Yahoo ran into a problem of integrating the different services. A notable example was Flickr and Yahoo Photos. Eventually the two service became Flickr, but the task was time consuming. In fact, a heterogeneous infrastructure coupled with acquisitions that operated as standalone properties contributed to the shift at Yahoo. A shift that is still underway.
AOL, on the other, sort of wobbled along. The big change came with hiring a manager from Google (could this be an oxymoron?) and becoming a separate company. In the last few days, there’s been quite a bit of activity at AOL, mostly related to acquisitions that deliver content. If AOL can integrate its new purchases – a popular blog and conference property TechCrunch and 5min Media (a company with a couple of hundred thousand videos), AOL will become more like today’s Yahoo.
Can AOL become a content company that generates sufficient revenue to fly high again? Would a union of AOL and Yahoo make sense to some deal starved investment firm? What happens if Facebook buys one of these outfits, a suggestion when I first heard struck me as a wild and crazy idea?
This is not a good or a bad thing. I find it fascinating that two established online companies seem to be doppelgängers. Yes, that includes search.
Stephen E Arnold, October 1, 2010
Freebie
Fierce Criticism of SharePoint
September 30, 2010
I have lost interest in SharePoint and SharePoint search. Not much strikes me as new and improved. Nevertheless, when my newsreader spits out an interesting link from Fierce, I do scan it. “New Survey Reveals Dissatisfaction with SharePoint” caught my attention and provided me an opportunity to write an ambiguous headline. Surveys, as readers of this blog, know are suspect to me from the git-go. There’s the issue of sample size, sample selection, question shaping, and analytic methods. These juicy items are tough to get even when you have the survey wonks who did to work sitting directly in front of me.
Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
For instance a whopping 78 percent of respondents reported that SharePoint “user experience was inadequate,” while only 17.6 percent chose that SharePoint was “great and adequately met their needs.”
So, unhappy campers. You can read more about the survey’s findings in the Fierce write up.
My questions:
- Why is a product so widely used generating so much discontent?
- Why aren’t the third party, certified vendors making more of this discontent? My view is that these folks pay money to be certified and don’t want to anger their meal ticket.
- When will the open source community exploit this pain point?
In the meantime, I will maintain my present position and waddle forward without much concern. No search worries. No governance worries. No metatagging worries. Life is good at the goose pond. I will leave those worries to the CFOs who have to figure out why SharePoint is so darned interesting when it comes to costs.
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2010
Freebie
MarkLogic Reveals Strategies for Publishers
September 30, 2010
A reader sent me a copy of a news release from MarkLogic. “MarkLogic Unveils Strategies for Publishers to Create Innovative New Tools and Products at Frankfurt Book Fair 2010” contained some interesting information. Here are two points that jumped out at me:
- MarkLogic’s customers include, if I read the news release correctly, seem to include McGraw-Hill, Springer, Pearson Education, Thomson Reuters, John Wiley & Sons, Simon & Schuster, and Oxford University Press. That’s an impressive line up, and it certainly suggests that the company has been inroads in a number of top firms. The implication is that MarkLogic will continue to capture customers in this segment.
- MarkLogic’s system allows its customers to create new products and streamline work flow, aggregate content, syndicate content, and deliver content. The outputs? Print, of course, as well as mobile devices and digital products.
My take on this announcement is that MarkLogic has shifted from offering an XML solution to a broader information solution. XML is still there, but the message in the news release for me is that MarkLogic allows publishers to generate new revenue, reduce costs, and support the consumer’s growing appetite for content when it is wanted and how it is wanted. Looks to me that I will have to chase down a MarkLogic senior manager and find out more about the firm’s positioning for 2010 and beyond.
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2010
Freebie
Connector Craziness: The Next Search Battleground
September 29, 2010
A reader sent me a link to a blog post from one of the mid tier consulting firms. The article is “Document Filters as a Search Proxy War.” I really don’t have much to say about the write up. So I will pretty much ignore it. I do this with quite a bit of blog content as I flap past 66.
However, I would like to add some information that I think those involved in search and content processing may want to have at their fingertips. I am reasonably familiar with the number of connectors available from Autonomy and Oracle. However, the connector world is not limited to two vendors, nor is it likely that most of those in search of connectors are aware that the outcome of a legal matter could – and I emphasize could – have a significant impact on the market. You can read more about this matter in my Information Today column and in a series of posts I am doing for a new Web log that will be available in mid-October. The announcement of the new Web log will appear in Beyond Search and I believe there will be a news release if I remember to alert one of my goslings to the task.
First, EntropySoft is a vendor that offers document connectors. You can get information about that firm’s offerings at www.entropysoft.net.
Second, there is a major dust up in the document connector world, and it is one that is the subject of my October Information Today column. The issue is an allegation by i2 Ltd., a company based in England. The core of the allegation is that improper actions were used to reverse engineer a document connector by Palantir. Depending on the outcome of this legal matter, there may be some modifications in the connector world. The issue is a connector for file type ANB. I have done work for i2.
Third, there are some open source connector initiatives underway. If you have not explored this side of the connector world you can begin with a Google search, a Black Duck search, or navigate to http://openconnector.org. The open source software movement, particularly in light of the Oracle litigation with Google, may have an impact on open source connectors.
There are also connector vendors in Hungary and India, but I won’t list these. When the mid tier consultants recycle my work, I want them to have something to do.
With the financial vice closing on many keyword search firms, one has to be vigilant for partial or edited information. Hiving off connectors is a way to generate cash from “must have” code widgets. A serious connector business is a relatively large undertaking. That is one reason why certain firms eschew connectors completely; others code their own with varying degrees of success; and most firms turn to third parties for a bundle that handles the most common file types.
The goose may be old, but he makes an effort to identify as many sides of an issue as possible. What we have, therefore, is a potential instability in the shift from basic search to more sophisticated information fusion.
Stephen E Arnold, September 29, 2010
Freebie, unlike information from English majors, former journalists, and the azurini of the world
Apple May Challenge in Advertising
September 28, 2010
Google is mostly about advertising revenue, not search, in my opinion. The shift took place sometime in the 2006 and 2007 period. My yardstick continues to be Google’s technical documents in open source. These include patent applications, blog posts, and published papers.
Now Business Week has added some information that indicates a possible weakness in not just Google’s grip on the increasingly important mobile online ad market but also Microsoft’s and other companies’ prospects. “Apple Threatens Search Giants’ Mobile Ad Shares” reported:
Apple may be gaining share in the U.S. mobile advertising market this year at the expense of Google and Microsoft. Apple will end the year with 21 percent of the market, according to estimates provided to Businessweek.com by researcher IDC. Google’s share will drop to 21 percent, from 27 percent last year, when combined with results from AdMob, the ad network it bought in May. Microsoft will drop to 7 percent, from 10 percent.
These type of data are almost always interesting and based on methods that are not described in detail. Let’s assume that the Apple iAd system is operating as described. Business Week notes that no company is a slam dunk.
Nevertheless, our view of these data is that the company most likely to be encouraged by the write up is not Apple. Apple understands the value of its customer base and its methods of providing access to Apple’s customers.
Our take is that Facebook is in an ideal position to leverage its “members” and the data the company has about these individuals. With Google’s approach relatively well known and Apple’s becoming increasingly clear, Facebook can sit back, tweak its online ad offerings, and use a “me too” approach when its mobile tactics become a reality later this year.
Will Apple’s push into social with its somewhat overly visible “Ping” link help Apple cope with Facebook? Can Google respond to the social dominance of Facebook and the Apple hardware/software ecosystem in rich media?
We don’t know the answer, but Google may be the company with most significant challenge. And what happens to search? The odds seem to be rising that search will become the servant of online advertising. Search is a means to generate ad revenue, not a way to help users solve an information problem. If we are correct, this is an important moment in findability. Any pretense to objectivity in public Web search results may be swept away.
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2010
Freebie
Egentia: Another Aggregation Play
September 28, 2010
The newspaper is no longer the most sought after when it comes to finding the latest information. More and more people are putting down their paper and turning to online news to keep them informed. The company Eqentia aims to build a business portal that will have the same prestige for entrepreneurs that Google News has for the average user who wants to be informed about general news and developments.”
The article “Eqentia.com – Like Google News but For Businessmen” on KillerStartups.com explains a little more about the site. Basically, the company wants to allow users to customize their news options and get only the business news they want. Users can get the latest news from their business sector, keep an eye on the competition or see consumer patterns which can be helpful when coming up with marketing or media campaigns. A similar setup is already used by Silobreaker, which is dedicated to providing users with relevant news. Users perform automated searches in order to find in depth and relevant news instead of unsubstantiated chatter. Both sites give new meaning to the phrase “have it your way.”
The challenge seems to be marketing, not technology. There is an abundance of choices.
April Holmes, September 28, 2010
Freebie
White Paper on Data Mashups
September 28, 2010
We continue to work on projects that shift the emphasis from basic search to more sophisticated types of information retrieval. The companies in this market sector range from giants like SPSS (now part of IBM) and SAS to smaller firms that owe their origins to investments from the US government; for example, Recorded Future and Purple Yogi (now Stratify).
We noted the article titled “InetSoft Publishes Business Intelligence White Paper on Data Mashups”. The document of interest is a white paper authored by InetSoft, one of the companies pushing forward with data mashup technology. The paper asserts:
Data mashup is a data transformation and integration technique that puts control into the hands of the business user. Data mashup melds the flexibility of a spreadsheet with enterprise-level security, performance, repeatability, and collaboration. Data mashup can function in a complimentary relationship with warehousing, and can serve as a cost-effective substitute for traditional ETL [extract, transform, and load].
Spotting, digging out, and analyzing business data from disparate sources is expensive and time consuming. Further, this data must then be used for business intelligence (BI) decision-making and analysis. BI aims to support better decision-making by transforming raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable effective and strategic decision-making. The main point is that business intelligence can save licensees of mashup systems time and eliminate reporting costs. Like other next generation companies, the implication is that InetSoft offers a flexible framework.
Our view is that the “mashup” or data fusion sector is now the next big thing in search and content processing. We are uncertain about the time and expense of marketing these next generation systems, however. In our view, as traditional search vendors face commoditization for low value, low complexity solutions, the hunt for new revenue will create significant opportunities for confusing potential customers.
Search is not really simple, but it is now tired. The next generation content processing systems have vigor, but will the excesses of enthusiasm create the same type of market perplexity that befuddles some procurement teams? What will the azurini do? How will the marketers at the rising number of “data fusion” firms position their products?
Excitement ahead.
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2010
Freebie
Tibco: Money and Mentos
September 27, 2010
Tibco (founded and directed by MIT- and Harvard-grad Vivek Ranadive) reported strong third quarter earnings. The company also made an interesting acquisition. Tibco purchased OpenSpirit, a maker of software used in oil and gas exploration in September 2010.
The “information bus” upon which Tibco’s fame rests is used as plumbing in a number of high profile industries. These include news, financial services, and government entities.
What’s important about Tibco is that the firm, in my opinion, has been one of the leaders in real time computing and information systems. Tibco’s approach can alert, pass messages, and transform content. With a bit of work, Tibco becomes the equivalent of the nervous system of a client. Many companies assert that their technology delivers a platform. Palantir, for example, is a relative newcomer to the platform pitch. But the reality is that companies like Tibco deliver a deeper, more fundamental architectural approach.
And Tibco makes the efficacy of its architecture easy to understand. How does Tibco communicate the value of its real time architecture? Click here.
For more information about Tibco, what I call a real platform company, navigate to the firm’s Web site at www.tibco.com. When I visited Tibco’s offices a decade ago, I remember see Yahoo News chugging happily away on Tibco’s servers. Yep, Tibco is more than Mentos.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2010
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
