Google Plus Is Not a Social Network
July 1, 2012
I read “Google+ Creator: Don’t Call It a Social Network.” The story makes it clear that a 20 something news service reported that Google Plus is not a social network. Okay, second, maybe third hand information is just the ticket for the 4th of July holiday crowd. For me, I was mildly curious. Here’s the passage which caught my attention:
Mashable sat down with Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of social business, and Bradley Horowitz, Google+’s vice president of product, at the Google I/O developer conference. They were excited about the new Google+ features that were announced — the Events feature and the new tablet app — but they were also quick to downplay any comparisons to Facebook, or any suggestion that many people aren’t interested in joining Google+. “Google+ is just an upgrade to Google,” says Gundotra. “People have a hard time understanding that. I think they like to compare us with other social competitors, and they see us through that lens instead of really seeing what’s happening: Google is taking its amazing products, and by bringing them together, they just become more awesome.” Gundotra and others have said this before, and you get the sense that they really believe in their recipe for Kool-Aid. Google also released some new statistics to parry any stabs at accusing the network of not having a large and engaged audience — 250 million total users, with 150 million of them visiting every month, and half of those people signing in every day (if you’re doing the math, that’s 75 million daily active Plussers).
Two senior Google professionals and one interesting idea. Google Plus is not a social network.
My thoughts started to drift toward what my former history professor Dr. Philip Crane called “Stalin’s revisionism.” But I dismissed that idea. The notion that anyone today would reinvent or change the historical record is downright goose feathers, correct?
I did a quick search of Google+ social and Google Plus social and learned:
- Google.com reports that there are 423 billion hits on the query “Google+” social
- Google.com reports that there are 272 billion hits on the query “Google Plus” social
My hunch is that it will take more than a couple of interviews and a CNN story to alter the Google compensation plan which rewards Googlers for social products and services, Larry Page’s seeming obsession with playing catch up to the “new” Larry Page Mark Zuckerberg, and the series of social innovations which were flawed, late to market or flops (Orkut, Buzz, Wave, Knol, and so on).
Perhaps that chance association with Stalin’s revisionism was not too wide of the metaphorical mark. You may find “Google+: A Year of Missed Opportunities” a possible trigger for the double Googler about face.
Stephen E Arnold, July 1, 2012
Sponsored by Polyspot
Is Google Plus Pursuing Social Advertising?
June 30, 2012
Something social this way comes, with a coin changer. Computerworld informs us that “Google+ Looks Poised to Roll Out Social Ads.” We knew this day would come, didn’t we? Writer Cameron Scott got a clue that the time may be upon us when he saw a Google+ job listing for a social ads launch marketing manager. The write up reveals:
“Google+ does not currently include any advertising. The company does deliver personalized advertising to users across its properties. Social advertising, however, generally refers to ads that are served to users based on their social contacts’ activities on Google+.
“Google will apparently first look to introduce the B2B ‘social features to businesses worldwide,’ according to the posted job description. The marketing manager will also help determine how Google will talk about the advertising at launch, focusing on ‘core features,’ ‘social ads’ and ‘analytics and platforms,’ the job listing indicates.”
Professionals in the field whom Scott interviewed speculated about how such business to business social advertising might work. Companies might pay for professional purchasers to click on “plus one” buttons all day. Ads might also look much like those seen on Facebook. It is unknown whether this marketing would be pushed on only the Google+ platform or spread across the Web. I’d bet on the latter.
Cynthia Murrell, June 30, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
IBM Combines and Expands Decision Management Tools
June 29, 2012
IBM has been working hard to build its technology treasure trove; it has acquired over 30 companies, captured hundreds of analytics patents, and made deals with over 27,000 business partners. Now Yahoo Finance reveals, “IBM Launches New Class of Analytics Software to Improve Decision Making.” So, it appears that after many acquisitions, we now have a new “class” of analytics. How can this be?
The recent release of IBM’s Operational Decision Management software combines the company’s Analytical and Operational Decision Management tools. The combination, the press release asserts, empowers the software to accurately suggest the next best action to its users and their employees. The write up emphasizes:
“In a single platform, IBM has combined the power of business rules, predictive analytics and optimization techniques through intuitive interfaces that allow users to focus on specific business problems. The resulting decision can be consumed by existing pre-packaged or custom-built applications, including many applications on the mainframe. The platform also takes advantage of IBM InfoSphere Streams technology where big data can be analyzed and shared in motion, providing real-time decision making in environments where thousands of decisions can be made every second.”
IBM also added a new social network analytics feature which expands sentiment analysis capabilities. See the write up and other links above for more information on the software. We agree that these developments may be a welcome evolution. A whole new class of analytics, though? That may be a bit much.
Cynthia Murrell, June 29, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Connotate and Digital Reasoning Glean Intelligence from Social Media
June 27, 2012
Governments are eager to rapidly cull actionable intelligence from the constant deluge of unstructured social media data. Digital Reasoning and Connotate have announced that they are teaming up to address this need with Connotate’s expertise in large-scale data monitoring and extraction and with Digital Reasoning’s unstructured data analytics chops. The press release states:
“Connotate’s ability to monitor dynamic social media sources, automatically reformat large-scale data into simple formats and deliver them to Digital Reasoning’s machine-learning text analytics solution helps government agencies and businesses achieve a deeper understanding of how they are perceived and connected to the world around them. Rather than analyzing all of the world’s data, this partnership instead focuses on leveraging only relevant, timely information so that government agencies can accurately link people and organizations to a myriad of related data points, including time and location. This capability is crucial to government agencies as well as enterprises conducting competitive intelligence or internal audits.”
Sounds like a capable combination. Connotate CEO Keith Cooper is excited about the unprecedented partnership, which combines technologies to take on what he says are the three main challenges of big data: velocity, variety, and volume. Tim Estes, CEO of Digital Reasoning, emphasizes that speed is the crucial factor in this particular project.
Digital Reasoning boasts that their Synthesys, used by over a dozen government agencies, is the first software platform that automatically makes sense of big data. The company was founded in 2007, and makes its primary home in Franklin Tennessee, with an office in Washington, DC.
Founded in 2000, Connotate aims to help clients increase the value they get out of Web-based data with easy-to-use solutions. Connotate asserts that it is the only vendor in its field “with a broad, uncontested patent portfolio.” That is a definite advantage. The company has been named a KMWorld “Trend-Setting Product” for the past six years.
Cynthia Murrell, June 27, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
Social Media Analytics Finds 98.6 Percent Positive Sentiment Towards Rock of Ages
June 27, 2012
Have you ever wondered if it was possible to accurately predict a successful motion picture?
If so, wouldn’t the owner of this technology invest in winning films? MarketWatch recently discussed this very topic in the article “Social Media Sentiment Strongly Positive Toward ‘Rock of Ages’ Despite Film’s Disappointing Box Office.”
According to the article, Attensity, a social analytics and engagement provider, has released a report analyzing public reaction in social media to the movie, Rock of Ages by using the company’s social analytics application Attensity Analyze.
After looking at sites like Twitter, Facebook, news sites, forums, videos and other social sources before and after the release, the report found:
“Attensity’s data reveals that the already positive sentiment toward Rock of Ages, in fact, grew over 10 percent after the film’s premiere. Positive sentiment for Tom Cruise in the movie also increased, moving from 47.87 percent to 52 percent. On the other hand, critics of Tom Cruise jumped on the opportunity to post their negative comments about the actor and his participation in Rock of Ages, adding to the small amount of negative sentiment and arguably playing a role in the film’s lackluster opening weekend numbers.”
While researchers discovered an overwhelming 96.8 percent positive sentiment toward Rock of Ages, can this technology be applied to all movies and actually predict a film’s success? or does it merely pick up on the excitement surrounding it?
Jasmine Ashton, June 27, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Does IBM Dominate Enterprise Social Software?
June 27, 2012
For the third year in a row, market research firm IDC has found IBM to be the biggest seller of enterprise social software, according to eWeek’s “IBM Is Social Business Software Leader: Study.” According to the IDC study, last year IBM grew faster than any competitor, and nearly twice as fast as the overall market (no slouch at 40% growth). In addition, the write up reveals:
“IBM said more than 35 percent of Fortune 100 companies have adopted its social software offerings including eight of the top 10 retailers and banks. IBM’s social business software and services combine social networking capabilities with analytics to help companies capture information and insights into dialogues from employees and customers and create interactions that translate into real value, the company said.”
Yes, that’s what these systems do. IBM’s social networking platform, available both on-site and in the cloud, is called IBM Connections. But what about Watson? Isn’t that system social? We don’t see much of Watson, so is that system anti-social? Just a thought.
IDC expects the enterprise social platform market to reach $4.5 billion by 2016; that’s a 43% growth over those next four years. They see businesses aiming to apply social capabilities to every aspect of their operations—a huge boon for companies in that field. Is the social hype really as pervasive as this study suggests?
With Microsoft’s recent move in enterprise social software, I wonder if IBM is overstating its case.
Cynthia Murrell, June 27, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Google Strolls a Local Path. Does the Firm Know Its Way?
June 23, 2012
Google is prancing down the catwalk with yet another design in hopes of rivaling competitors. Google Places got to thin so now the risqué Google+ took over to strut their stuff with local search. According to the article Google Places Is Over, Company Makes Google+ the Center Of Gravity for Local Search This new approach will rival the social interaction of Facebook and Twitter by allowing merchants to develop followers and message them.
Google has returned to a two search-box approach for Google+ Local search in order to allow users to narrow their search and:
“If you click the new “Local” tab in Google+ you’re taken to a personalized local home (discovery) page, which offers a mix of popular, social and recommended content. There are several variables that go into the content that appears on this page. The same two people in Seattle won’t see the same page, though aspects of it may be the same.”
This new design is still a work in progress, so more frills may be added later. Right now results are based on overall Zagat point system reviews and posts, along with places touched by your circle. Google has tried to make their model more attractive to users, like Facebook and Twitter. Local search is a tough challenge. Can Google do a Project Runway and “make it work, people.”
Jennifer Shockley, June 23, 2012
Cyber Showdown in the Social Media World
June 22, 2012
There is a cyber-showdown in the social media world and Google’s pulling a glass gun on Facebook. The big G may not ever be the social networking sheriff, but according to Pictures and vision, their new speak and see project might land them a deputy badge.
The networking weapons are fully loaded and:
“So the titanic showdown between Facebook and Google might not be the News Feed vs. Google+ after all. It might be Facebook Camera vs. Project Glass.”
“In truth it’s pictures and vision. Facebook users will continue to upload a significant fraction of a billion photos every day. With luck, Google will get something going with Glass. These things can thrive side by side. If Google is truly successful, POV images and video clips will start showing up on Facebook, too. Everything mixes and merges.”
The Facebook Camera has some shiny bullets, like sharing multiple photos at once, quick edits and ease of access. However, you can’t get better ease of access than Project Glass glasses. The voice command to search, share, message and retrieve provides a hands free convenience that people love.
Many Facebooker’s get accounts to see photos, videos and updates of their friends and family with users uploading over 250 million images daily. Glass just provided them with the possibility of a ‘first person shooter’ perspective on new feeds. The irony is these two duelists complement one another in the end, while delivering an interesting approach to visual search and retrieval. We’re giving Google’s mortician the day off on this one.
Jennifer Shockley, June 22, 2012
Spammers Target Social Networks
June 21, 2012
It is no surprise that the increased use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is decreasing the amount of “quality” content being created. According to the recent BGR article “Social Media Spam: 40% of Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Networks are Spam” excellent information may be in the minority sooner than we think.
According to the article, one of the reasons that social networks are decreasing in quality content is due to the fact that they are being increasingly targeted by spammers. Apparently, social spamming is much more effective than email spamming.
According to Mark Risher, chief executive officer of anti-spam software company Impermium:
“Spammers are responsible for creating as much as 40% of the accounts on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Social spam can be a lot more effective than e-mail spam.The bad guys are taking to this with great abandon. Roughly 8% of messages sent on social networks are spam according to Risher, and that figure has doubled in the past six months, the spam expert estimates.”
While social networking sites are trying to increase their efforts to stop spammers, it doesn’t seem to be making much of an impact. Tough to search spam or what is defined as spam.
Jasmine Ashton, June 21, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Twitter: A Long Road to Travel in Search
June 19, 2012
Twitter has been a success in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and in the cheerful world of those steeped in real time information. The reality is that Twitter generates a great deal of information in relatively context free outputs. I think of those outputs as an opportunity, but the reality is that the volume of information and the challenge of finding a gem amidst the gravel is big one.
Twitter seems to be making a step forward. Online Media Daily’s “Twitter Hires LinkedIn Pro to Improve Real Time Search, Ads” informed us at Beyond Search that John Wang, a search and open source wizard, is joining the tweeters.
What is missing? The information displayed via Twitter search is useful. Ads in context to the context free messages are not evident. Is this the gap which Twitter will move to fill? We think that for Twitter at this time, advertising revenue is more important than recall and precision.
The search challenge is not one which can be resolved overnight. The fix for the context data is not going to be easy. Did I mention the brevity of the tweets and the volume? If not, both will require thought and money to resolve. When content flows in high volume, the red ink is like the water behind one of those soil dams in the Netherlands. Vigilance and creativity are needed along with luck, money, and an infrastructure which can adapt to avoid a cost problem.
Our view is that better search (whatever that means) is a nice to have. The must have at Twitter will be advertising. However, our hope is that search is defined more in terms of making Twitter information useful. We will watch the evolution of http://search.twitter.com and the ads on the result pages.
Stephen E Arnold, June 19, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
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