Facebook: Makes Noise without Trying
September 20, 2010
Americans like to post photos, update status messages, and scroll through news from friends on Facebook, more than any other activity when online. This is concluded from a comScore research revealed in the USAToday.com article, “Facebook Inches Past Google for Web Users’ Minutes.” Moreover, what startles us more is the fact stated that, “U.S. Web surfers are spending more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google.”
My view is that Google wants to make sure usage for its service sticks in the 50 to 60 percent range. At these levels, Google is not really a monopoly in my view.
But this Facebook surge probably rings a bell for Google, as well as Yahoo, both of which were well ahead of Facebook ,in terms of percentage of Web surfers who spent time on their sites. In just a matter of three years, Facebook’s share of U.S. surfers’ total minutes per month has risen from 2 percent to 9.9 percent, whereas Google lags behind at 9.6 percent, even after including its sites like YouTube, Gmail and others. This could well be a wakeup call for the giant Google, with a challenge to regain the top spot.
But the real story is that a post in a popular Web log and the follow up story “Anatomy Of A PR Spin (AKA How To Lie Like A Pro)” has escalated into a major media incident in the blogosphere. The idea that Facebook, a mere social network, would create a mobile device is little more than one of those Silicon Valley rumors. What is important is that a Silicon Valley rumor like Oracle wanting to buy a search vendor (how boring) becomes when Facebook is involved. Not boring. A huge issue.
That’s the story for me.
Facebook right now is one of the outfits with the power to disrupt. Forget the Facebook phone or whatever the rumor says the device is.
Facebook has arrived and it will be no easy task to put a damper on the Facebook noise. Honk.
Stephen E Arnold, September 20, 2010
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AOL and Its Google Tie Up
September 20, 2010
Remembering the heydays bring about feelings of gaiety, but would the same old associations be able to produce the extraordinary magic again? Well, at least AOL is trying to make it happen. We read about “AOL Renews Search Ad Deal With Google” on WebProNews, and the deal that “Google will provide search services to AOL’s content network and properties, in exchange for a revenue-sharing arrangement between the two companies.”
AOL is all-upbeat about this new development and plans to expand the deal in the coming future, with hopes that this alliance “will provide improved experiences to AOL’s world wide audience,” says the article. It adds further that both the companies will work together and cover mobile search, and bring AOL’s video content to YouTube. We think Google has nailed the former superstar’s business, but do you think that Google and its Xoogler can make AOL a powerhouse once again? We doubt it. Yahoo is trying to make its service grow, and both AOL and Yahoo seem to be competing in a very similar business manner. One is Googley. The other is Microsofty.
Harleena Singh, September 19, 2010
Fujitsu and Libraries: A Bit of a Surprise
September 20, 2010
Fujitsu has taken the charge on the cloud. It recently started its software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based solution for library administration for Japan’s municipal public libraries, as part of its global cloud strategy. The JapanToday’s article, “Fujitsu to Start Services for Libraries Using Cloud Computing,” further states that, “the services will enable libraries to manage information on lending books to users without their own computer systems.”
Fujitsu estimates that deploying the ICT system environment for the libraries, with the help of Fujitsu’s datacenters can save the libraries about 30 percent on their ICT costs over a period of five years. The article says that since the library employees are relieved from “the responsibilities for maintaining and operating the ICT system, the library can operate more efficiently.” As Fujitsu plans to create regional library centers, and its rival NEC Corp too plans to begin similar services, it appears to us as a different and potentially predatory move against the beleaguered library vendors.
Harleena Singh, September 20, 2010
A Fatter Big Brother? Search, Surveillance, and More
September 19, 2010
Big Brother. The Man. Spies. All three of these buzzwords conjures up many things in peoples minds. Who are they? What exactly do they do? Are they watching me and recording every move I make? To most, silly paranoia. But, in an eye opening article “Big Brothers of Multiculturalism,” Ms. Julienne Eden Buši?’s points got me thinking.
Follow along from this excerpt from the article:
The time I got into an argument with a waiter named Tony at a restaurant behind the Votiv Church and was escorted roughly out, never to return. They must have been snickering at my indignation, these omnipresent agents. Who does she think she is? Creating a ruckus, disturbing the other guests? Another time at the Prater amusement park, had they been there, too, when I had….oh the indignity of it all! It was bad enough that I remembered, but to think that others remembered, too, that they had written down all the gory details in a secret report so that others could visualize it as well….that they had then talked about it with still more people, perhaps their wives or colleagues, chuckled again about the “American girl”, her scandalous behavior, her embarrassment, excessiveness…this was unbearable. Who did she think she was, anyway? On the other hand, many of the other dossier allegations, observations, statements, conclusions were total fabrications, less believable than if they had written that I’d suddenly grown a long, hairy tail and sprouted horns, and intended quite obviously to gain praise from one’s boss, or perhaps a raise in position or salary. So how effective, after all, was the notorious spy agency, if its actions were predicated upon some agent’s literary flights of fancy?
The exact time frame of that statement is unknown, and information gathered in that same time is also unknown. The real question then is, What is the quality of the information gathered? Is it from a trusted source? How reliable are the “facts”? Someone gathered it from somewhere, but was that information handled correctly? It would also be a safe bet that some of this information recorded was not at all accurate, but an all out fabrication of a persons mind.
Fast forward to 9-11. After the attacks on America, the Federal Government shifts into ultra high gear. Overdrive is an understatement. The effort and investment are mirrored by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, “We did as we so often do in this country…the attitude was, if it’s worth doing, it’s probably worth overdoing.”
The article is a thought starter if largely unverified. Interesting to consider search, surveillance, and content processing in the context of Eden Buši?’s remarks.
Glenn Black, September 19, 2010
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Twitter Morphs into an Application
September 16, 2010
The Web pundits are in full stampede mode. Twitter, beloved of those who live and breathe real time connectivity, has changed from a Fail Whale into a Application. You can get a useful summary of the new features at “How Twitter.com Gives Your Favorite App a Run for Its Money.” The idea is that one does not need a service like Collecta.com or one of the dozen of other Twitter-attuned services to make sense of the tweet stream. Nope. You can do it all from Twitter. I find this development interesting for three reasons:
- The new layout makes monetization options blossom like dogwoods the week before the Kentucky Derby.
- The Twitter-centric services will have to put on their innovation sneakers and get moving. Twitter, long content to deal with stability issues and explaining what tweets are, is on the move.
- The shift takes another chunk out of the hide of traditional key word search. The narrowing by hash tags, the social component, the following—each of these makes a Boolean query look like a Babylonian clay tablet.
With complexity overwhelming many computer users, a service that becomes an application runs the risk of feature-itis. I find the new service quite interesting, but it tells me more about how companies like Twitter are reacting to the laundry list approach to finding information. That’s what makes the goose paddle faster.
And it is “real time.” That’s a fuzzy concept but it mashes up info in an app. Sort of new methinks.
Stephen E Arnold, September 16, 2010
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Microsoft and Its Next Big Challenge
September 16, 2010
As the giants Apple, Facebook and Google continue to grow man wander if there is a place for Microsoft among the elite. The author of the Xconomy article “Can Microsoft Outflank Apple, Facebook, and Google? A Strategy Update” attempts to get readers to see exactly how Microsoft continues to makes moves while flying under the radar. The author points to Microsoft’s business strategies and believes 2010 could be the “turning point for Microsoft new businesses.” Bing is Microsoft’s Web search project and the key to its strategy. Due to Microsoft’s aggressive marketing efforts it is a definite and dangerous Google competitor and continues to flourish and grow. Bing also created interest with the announcement that it “is officially powering all of Yahoo’s search capabilities in the U.S. and Canada.” As Microsoft grows and spreads its wings Google may end up paying the price for dropping the ball and missing the opportunity to spread and solidify its dominance.
Stephen E Arnold, September 15, 2010
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Social Media and Attensity: Pushing Forward
September 15, 2010
The social media world has become deeply rooted into the business world. The ZDNet article “Social “Rising Stars: Maria Ogneva on Scaling Social Media” gives Attensity’s Social Media Director, Maria Ogneva, a chance to discuss the importance of knowing what is going on in the social media world. According to the article social media is “heading straight into mass-market adoption, with no signs of slowing down.” It is the “#1 activity on the web” and with so much influence companies must find ways to listen to their customer online chatter and properly respond. Tools are needed that allow companies to filter customer responses, route them to the appropriate department and provide a prompt response. With so many different social media outlets, companies must decide which ones to put emphasis on and the employee assistance set up needed in order to properly handle customer issues. The social media world has become like a gossip column where customer comments, especially negative, spread like wildfire and can have lasting effects.
April Holmes, September 15, 2010
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Exalead Anchors US International Trade Commission
September 14, 2010
Drowning in a sea of data, one government agency recently had a life preserver tossed its way from one of the search industry’s best and brightest. “U.S. International Trade Commission Selects Exalead CloudView as Primary Search Engine” said:
USITC end user site surveys indicated that people couldn’t easily find the information they were looking for on http://www.usitc.gov via its search function. In 2009, USITC decided to replace its previous search software and reviewed a number of other enterprise search options for a solution that met its needs, was easy to administer, and fit its budget.
The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) (http://www.usitc.gov) handles issues of global and domestic trade with its quasi-judicial authority. In doing so, the agency collects massive quantities of data that both employees and visitors to its site needed to access.
The solution was Exalead CloudView, which “uses advanced semantic technologies to bring structure, meaning and accessibility to previously unused or under-used data in the new hybrid enterprise and Web information cloud.” For the USITC, specifically, CloudView aimed to provide two very specific functions. First, it gave outside users access to over 40,000 documents ranging from PDFs, spreadsheets, Word docs and more. Secondly, CloudView gave employees the ability to search file systems, folders and data repositories that, previously, had to be searched for in a time-consuming manual process.
The result is a highly efficient enterprise and web combination that improves the agency’s ability to monitor trade around the globe. The new system increased the range of available information, boosted performance and provided much-needed speed and simplicity to the Web site.
This is not only a big win for Exalead.
Stephen E Arnold, September 14, 2010
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Social Media: Will It Challenge Apple?
September 14, 2010
Google has not hit a home run in the social media market. Now it appears that Apple may face a similar challenge.
Facebook is not ready to shake hands with Apple because it’s got the ‘i-flu’, which could contagiously disrupt its massive user base with spam. It is the curse with which social networking sites are born, and have to live with. The TechNewsWorld article “Can Spam-Swamped Ping Survive Without Facebook?” sings about the spam problem, which few Sophos tech geeks say Apple could have avoided. Remember Facebook was earlier hit by Apple-related spam, and now even ping profiles are spammed, making people wonder why Apple is not beefing up its security.
Facebook is in security frenzy. “It’s looking closely at every link that comes to its service to see if it has malicious content,” reports the article. Normally Facebook’s APIs are open to other services; it isn’t taking any chances with Apple’s new iTunes-related social music network. The negotiation deadlock to let Apple access Facebook’s APIs, now probably depends on Ping’s success. Well, Ping sure needs Facebook, but is Apple repeating the Lord of the Flies plot?
Harleena Singh, September 14, 2010
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US Government and Its New IT Directions
September 14, 2010
The U.S. Government is shedding its old clothes for new ones that fit the new technology. The Obama Administration wants the agencies to be transparent and innovative, giving command to U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to implement the “Open Government” initiative, which in turn created the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT).
The CRMBuyer interview “Making Change Happen Every Day: Q&A With GSA’s David McClure”, reports the OCSIT associate administrator comment that, “OCSIT is rapidly becoming a leader in the use of new media, Web 2.0 technologies, and cloud computing, to proactively make government agencies and services more accessible to the public.” According to him, by operating at the “enterprise level,” the GSA is aiming to accelerate the adoption of technologies, including mobile applications, and improving search engine capabilities, to involve greater customer interactions and gain efficiencies. We concur with David who feels enhancing citizen participation in government will pay dividends on technology investments, but by hiring IBM to add agility, we are not sure if it could be the swiftest runner on the track team.
Why are there so many separate search systems? Is one efficiency to use one indexing system?
Is IBM the swiftest cat in the nature preserve?
Leena Singh, September 14, 2010
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