Navgle Lost?
July 7, 2010
Short honk: I liked the Navgle.com service. It was a tie up between South Korea’s Naver.com and Google.com. I saw a 404 a month ago and tried again today. Goner. Too bad. I liked the service. No details. My hunch is that there are some juicy factoids but the goose doesn’t care. In love with Google, out of love with Google does not matter. Google is Google.
Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2010
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ArnoldIT July 2010 For-Fee Columns
July 6, 2010
Stephen E Arnold’s July 2010 columns have been filed. These will appear between August and October 2010 due to the lag time in print publication. Information World Review has shifted from paper to an online-only publication, so that column should be available in the month of July. Here’s a run down of what I covered for each of these publishing firms:
Information Today, published by Information Today in Medford, New Jersey. The column is “The Palantir Play: A Blend of Open and Closed.” Palantir received about $90 million in venture funding. The column considers the implications of the firm’s open source and proprietary technology blend. www.infotoday.com
Information World Review, published by Bizmedia Ltd., runs my column in its online journal. This month’s column is “Will Open Source Boost SAP?” My view is that I hope so. SAP has a long hill to climb with its aging locomotives R/3 and NetWeaver. www.iwr.co.uk
KMWorld, published by Information Today in Medford, New Jersey. The column is “Google Communications: Regular, Blended, or Transformational?”. I consider the differences between Google’s approach to enterprise unified communications and what such companies as Cisco, Microsoft, and Verizon offer. www.kmworld.com
Smart Business Network publishes about 20 regional business magazines. My column appears in each region’s publication. This month’s column is “Why a Web Site Is So Yesterday.” The idea is that other types of electronic presence is required. A Web page won’t pull the marketing cart in today’s world. www.sbnonline.com
In addition, the ArnoldIT.com team is generating original content for Access Innovations and IGear. If you want to add original content to your blog, let me know. I can provide you with options and costs for this service. The Beyond Search blog and my columns have created a spontaneous demand for substantive content on technical and business issues. Quite a surprise for this aging goose. One plus is that traffic to a Web site increases with the ArnoldIT.com “triple tap” method. Forget traditional public relations and consider the original content methods. Write seaky2000@yahoo.com for information.
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2010
This is a commercial message bought by Stephen E Arnold in order to generate vast sums of money and help companies wanting a marketing method that really works.
Business Spread Free Service
July 5, 2010
The best things in life are free, or so a British vertical search engine thinks. Business Spread provides an editable page, as well as entry onto social bookmarking pages and social networks like Twitter and Facebook for its customers. The listing page allows a business’ logo, a description and contact information all for free. Even the premium page options that place certain business listing above all others, is free, only requiring a link to Business Spread on that homepage. The jury is still out on how well this engine works for generating business. Business Spread’s page itself is cluttered and a little confusing to navigate. But by offering this service free, they are already doing better than similar competition that charges fees.
Jessica West Bratcher, July 5, 2010
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Autonomy Tasers Its Competition
July 2, 2010
I can hear the yelps now, “Don’t tase me, man. No, not again.” Bzzzap. “Yow.”
Now I hear a gasping, “Autonomy cannot be Number One. We are Number One.”
Who is doing the complaining? Probably about 300 vendors of search and content processing systems that is who. Why the howls on this fine summer day?
Navigate to Chron.com and read “Autonomy Is #1 in Search and Discovery Market, According to Leading Market Research Firm.” There is a write up about IDC’s study “Worldwide Search and Discovery 2009 Vendor Shares: An Update on Market Trends.” So, the 300 yelpers have to do more than howl, issue one shot news releases, or drop the ball on marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Autonomy — acording to a big gun analyst outfit — is the top dog, the king of the hill, and the cat’s pajamas in search and content processing. This is not my opinion, gentle reader, I am pointing you to a rock solid source, IDC.
What’s the write up say? Here’s a snippet:
Autonomy continues to be the largest enterprise supplier, using its search-based IDOL infrastructure to act as a foundation for content-centric and search-driven business applications including eDiscovery and compliance, Web content management, enterprise content management and rich media, search marketing, intelligence, call center and customer support, and traditional knowledge management applications.” “Businesses from every industry continue to turn to Autonomy to help them achieve what other technology companies fail to deliver on – identifying the meaning within all forms of information, in real-time, in order to protect and promote their organization,” said Mike Lynch, CEO of Autonomy. “Autonomy’s unique meaning-based approach to information computing is what continues to fuel our rapid growth and clear market leadership, as validated by the recent IDC report on Search and Discovery market shares.”
And no big disagreement from the addled goose. I quite like some of the Autonomy technology. I like most of what IDC produces. If the data compiled for the report are accurate, Autonomy has a big footprint and happy customers. Among the thousands of Autonomy licensees are AOL, BAE Systems, BBC, Bloomberg, Boeing, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Daimler AG, Deutsche Bank, DLA Piper, Ericsson, FedEx, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline, Lloyds TSB, NASA, Nestle, the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters, Shell, Tesco, T-Mobile, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
You may be using Autonomy technology and not even know it. More than 400 companies glue Autonomy to their own systems in order to provide search and content processing functions. Recognize any of these names? Symantec, Citrix, HP, Novell, Oracle, Sybase and TIBCO.
When the competition is able to stop yammering, perhaps some of these 300 vendors will start selling, marketing, and making Autonomy perspire. Google? Microsoft? Are you paying attention. Autonomy has more than 20,000 customers for its search and content processing systems, applications, and services. Oh, keep in mind that IDC offers data to back up its conclusion that Autonomy is Number One.
Competitors who make Kin phones and then kill their Kin the next day may want to reexamine their strategy. Other vendors may want to stop trying to tell governments how to run their railroads and business licensing policies.
Autonomy seems to have more – ah, how shall I say it? – yes, focus.
By the way, how does that taser feel? Want another zap? Bzzzap.
Stephen E Arnold, July 2, 2010
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Alibaba Vendio: Probing Endeca and Google in eCommerce
June 29, 2010
Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com, the business-to-business unit of Alibaba Group, is one of China’s okay Internet companies. I don’t think too much about China because it is a long, long way from the pond filled with mine run off here in Harrod’s Creek. My hunch is that the eCommerce companies don’t think too much about Alibaba either. That may change. Navigate to “Alibaba.com to Acquire Vendio,” and you will learn that Alibaba is going to acquire “a multi-channel e-commerce company providing a one-stop solution for small businesses that are selling online across multiple channels.” If this is the same Alibaba with which I am familiar, the tie up with Vendio could give those looking for a scalable eCommerce solution another option. The new story said:
The company says that from the Vendio Platform, merchants can source products from its supplier network and sell through channels such as eBay, Amazon, and their own Vendio-supported store. It adds that this platform is offered on Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud-computing model to help businesses increase their sales while managing costs to enhance their profit margin.
The implications of this deal range from price competition to more integrated back end functions. Google may be able to move forward without much concern. Google’s eCommerce solution is a recent innovation. Google’s ability to glue components together may allow the juggernaut to push Alibaba and Vendio to the curb. Endeca, working with somewhat different methods, may find itself having to deal with Amazon and the Alibaba Vendio duo. Yahoo remains a potential player in this eCommerce sector. My recollection is that Yahoo owns or owned a stake in the company. Amazon is an aggressive player, and it may have to adapt to Alibaba Vendio as well.
Alibaba has search technology, so this deal if it goes through will deliver what I call “search enabled processes.” I know that process is one of the words that put people to sleep. But despite the notion’s lack of sizzle, SEPs are going to be an increasingly important in the world beyond search. In fact, at the October Lucene Revolution, there will be some interesting sessions on this very topic.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2010
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Vivisimo Drifts to Integration and Services
June 29, 2010
I heard about Vivisimo’s Federal Day from a contact in Washington, DC. Like MarkLogic and many other organizations, a company sponsored conference can be more effective than a general purpose trade show. The vendors need qualified prospects, and I think that customer conferences with an open door policy for prospects is an important marketing angle for search and content processing vendors.
Vivisimo has not been on my radar. There has been executive churn which is often a sign that a company is in some flux. You can read about the event in the effusive write up in Vivisimo’s Web log Information Optimized. The story is “Vivisimo’s Federal Day 2010.” The line up of speakers struck me as eclectic, and I am not sure how much search and content processing focus the presentations had. The notion of “information optimization” strikes me as azure chip consultant speak. The phrase is ambiguous. I am not sure what information is, so it is tough for me to know how to optimize something I don’t understand. But I was not there, so hopefully Vivisimo will post the PowerPoint decks or PDF versions of the notes.
Like other companies with roots in a search function, Vivisimo is working hard to find a way to get customers without falling into the “search is dead” quagmire. For me, the most telling comment in the article was:
By the end of the day, with the help of our customers and partners, we had explored the need, the theory and the practice behind Information Optimization. As Director of Product Management I have the benefit of hearing our customer stories daily, but many in attendance don’t have this luxury so it was a great pleasure to see their eye light up with possibilities when hearing each other’s stories. One of my favorite quotes of the day was when an analyst explained the value of their application as “finally it was like the lights were turned on.” The diversity of solutions shown by our customers drove home the enormous potential of this discipline, and the feedback we received will help drive the evolution of Vivisimo’s product and service offerings in the future. What a home run!
A home run is great. Winning for customers and stakeholders is the real yard stick in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2010
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Business Intelligence: Optimism and Palantir
June 28, 2010
Business intelligence is in the news. Memex, the low profile UK outfit, sold to SAS. Kroll, another low profile operation, became part of Altegrity, anther organization with modest visibility among the vast sea of online experts. Now Palantir snags $90 million, which I learned in “Palantir: the Next Billion Dollar Company Raises $90 Million.” In the post financial meltdown world, there is a lot of money looking for a place that can grow more money. The information systems developed for serious intelligence analysis seem to be a better bet than funding another Web search company.
Palantir has some ardent fans in the US defense and intelligence communities. I like the system as well. What is fascinating to me is that smart money believes that there is gold in them there analytics and visualizations. I don’t doubt for a New York minute that some large commercial organizations can do a better job of figuring out the nuances in their petabytes of data with Palantir-type tools. But Palantir is not exactly Word or Excel.
The system requires an understanding of such nettlesome points as source data, analytic methods, and – yikes – programmatic thinking. The outputs from Palantir are almost good enough for General Stanley McChrystal to get another job. I have seen snippets of some really stunning presentations featuring Palantir outputs. You can see some examples at the Palantir Web site or take a gander (no pun intended by the addled goose) at the image below:
Palantir is an open platform; that is, a licensee with some hefty coinage in their knapsack can use Palantir to tackle the messy problem of data transformation and federation. The approach features dynamic ontologies, which means that humans don’t have to do as much heavy lifting as required by some of the other vendors’ systems. A licensee will want to have a tame rocket scientist around to deal with the internals of pXML, the XML variant used to make Palantir walk and talk.
You can poke around at these links which may go dark in a nonce, of course: https://devzone.palantirtech.com/ and https://www.palantirtech.com/.
Several observations:
- The system is expensive and requires headcount to operate in a way that will deliver satisfactory results under real world conditions
- Extensibility is excellent, but this work is not for a desk jockey no matter how confident that person in his undergraduate history degree and Harvard MBA
- The approach is industrial strength which means that appropriate resources must be available to deal with data acquisition, system tuning, and programming the nifty little extras that are required to make next generation business intelligence systems smarter than a grizzled sergeant with a purple heart.
Can Palantir become a billion dollar outfit? Well, there is always the opportunity to pump in money, increase the marketing, and sell the company to a larger organization with Stone Age business intelligence systems. If Oracle wanted to get serious about XML, Palantir might be worth a look. I can name some other candidates for making the investors day, but I will leave those to your imagination. Will you run your business on a Palantir system in the next month or two? Probably not.
Stephen E Arnold, June 27, 2010
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Favitt: Google Custom Search Engine Gone Wild
June 28, 2010
Short honk: If you find metasearch systems useful, check out Favitt. Based in Houston, Favitt tosses in some interesting twists. I liked the stream of real time hits relevant to my query. You can toss in a custom background and create a customized search engine. Run a query and you get YouTube hits, news links, and the real time stuff. I prefer the Kosmix approach, but you will want to take a look. Navigate to www.favitt.com. To get access to the customization page, you must register.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2010
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Googlers vs Xooglers: Are Smarts the X Factor?
June 28, 2010
There are lots of Xooglers now. Some are at little-known outfits with pals in the Pentagon. Some are now financiers or pundits. And some others are working at Facebook. I have watched how the Xooglers at Facebook have managed to emulate some of Google’s more interesting characteristics such as zigzagging around user security settings and pushing into the uncharted world visible to lesser mortals. I have also found some surprising insights such as skipping the 1998 approach to relevance by embracing the social network’s predilections.
I was interested in The Snitch’s write up about Web rock star Kevin Rose. Mr. Rose, a former business magazine cover personality, and podcast/meet up superstar. The article was “Is Google About to Launch a Facebook Killer? Kevin Rose Says So.” The idea is that there is a rumor, apparently Velcroed to Mr. Rose about Google’s Facebook killer.
Source: http://mark.koli.ch/2009/01/13/google-facebook.png
Let’s think about these “killers”. You know about these digital Ebolas: the Microsoft Word killer, the Oracle killer, the iPod killer, and so on. In my experience, when someone suggests that another company – usually gasping in second place or even farther behind in a market race – a sure fire way to keep the credibility is to get associated with a “killer”.
I am an old, addled goose. I am increasingly amused by the monopolization that occurs in digital markets. Decades ago, I pointed out in a series of columns for Information World Review that information pools and beckons handling in the way power companies and water companies operate. The infrastructure and captured customers eliminate competition because life is easier for the consumer.
Don’t believe me? That’s okay. You, gentle reader, are probably younger, smarter, and more hungry than this goose. But look around. Apple is in a pretty good position when it comes to high margin computers and gizmos that make teens and college students drool. Google owns the Web search and online advertising sector. The much maligned Microsoft owns the enterprise desktop no matter what a Zoho or Google PR person says. Want to buy a book online? You know the place to go: Amazon. There are other examples ranging from IBM in big companies to outfits like AT& and Verizon for “real telephony”.
Facebook on a Chocolate High
June 27, 2010
Today (Saturday, June 26, 2010) I had a short conversation with a person who argued that the Internet was Google. I would have agreed in 2006, but since that fateful year when Google when ga-ga, the company has lost its magic touch. I know the company is a money machine and ranks among the world’s superpowers in power and influence, but the excitement has shifted. Google is more of a Wal-Mart and is starting to look to me more like a Microsoft-inspired operation. The person with whom I spoke was not happy when I suggested that Facebook was the big gun in the Internet.
I think the reason I was playing like an avid Facebook friend was my recollection of “One Billion Facebook Users: The Road Ahead”, an article that appeared in Online Social Media. The argument in the short item was:
Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted as saying “that Facebook estimates of ($1.14 billion) just in revenue this year 2010 could be achieved”. One of the reasons contributing to this, could be that Facebook have become the top US publisher of display ads on the web. It appears that display ads in the first 3 months of the year captured users, and produced a 16.2% of the market share, double that of the previous year of 7.5%.
If we assume that Mr. Zuckerberg is on the beam, Facebook could mean big trouble for the Google and maybe Apple. The reason is that Microsoft seems to be comfortable with the Zuck’s creation. If Microsoft can find a way to cheerlead Facebook into bleeding ad revenue from the Google, that’s a plus. In fact, a slower Google could find itself pressure by the Cartier advertising approach of Apple on the high end and by the Zuck’s “better Google” approach.
If Facebook’s traffic keeps on growing * and if * the Facebook search system works reasonably well, Facebook may have done something not even the Googlers thought possible.
Stephen E Arnold, June 26, 2010
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