PCWorld Reports DOJ Search Thinking
February 20, 2010
“Yahoo Microsoft Deal Makes Bing Better, DOJ Says” caught my attention. In my opinion, a key passage was:
The [Department of Justice’s] reasoning is simple: By handling the back end of all Yahoo searches, Microsoft will gain access to almost three times the search queries it’s getting with Bing alone. The extra data will speed up Bing’s automated learning, helping the search engine return more relevant results, especially with rare queries, the DOJ says. In other words, Bing will have a better chance of finding what you’re looking for the first time around.
I suppose.
My view is that an outfit that has a significant market share lead can pretty much do what it wants. Competitors can surf the market economy. My question is, “Does the DOJ know more about search methods than some of the attorneys whose search expertise with which I am familiar?”
Stephen E Arnold, February 20, 2010
I was not paid to write this opinion. I am reporting my not getting paid to write this item to the DOJ.
Microsoft Gets Almost Married
February 19, 2010
My feedreader has been overflowing with the news that Microsoft and Yahoo can unite in their quest to chop down Google’s Web search market share. I think that the idea is an enervating one to the execs in strategy meetings. The optimism is probably contagious. Take a gander at the ZDNet write up called “Microsoft-Yahoo approved: Now the Heavy Lifting Starts.” For me, the key passage was:
Folks, this is a big project. The companies hope to have the integration complete in the U.S. by the end of the year. Meanwhile, advertisers and publishers are expected to be migrated over before the 2010 fourth quarter holiday push. That deadline could slip to 2011. All customers globally will be transitioned to Microsoft’s platform by early 2012.
Wow. I must admit I have not paid any attention to the grand plans of the Microsoft Yahoo duo. What crossed my mind when I read this ZDNet article was:
- What’s the Google doing during this time? Certainly taking pot shots at its foot but probably lumbering forward even when encumbered with lots of legal briefs.
- Will the tie up of two companies which have not been able to make much headway in online advertising be able to get their Evinrude fired up and the bass boat into the lake? Panama took years and never really worked as well as Google’s system. Microsoft’s fixing Vista sucked up a couple of years. Both of these were priority projects and neither made my pinfeathers tingle.
- Users have quite a few tasty options. These include Facebook and Twitter. The Google has not been able to deal effectively with these two, and I don’t think of either Microsoft or Yahoo as set up to deal with users who may not have a combined service as a number one destination or even a number three or four destination.
In short, Microsoft and Yahoo may need to do some pretty nifty work and quickly. Without quick, decisive, compelling action, the Yahoo crowd will get mired in Microsoft. Microsoft will be Microsoft. Google may be more vulnerable to Facebook, the Chinese special section, and lawyers. I am eager to see the search solution that Microsoft and Yahoo roll out to close the gap with Google.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since I mention social activities, I suppose I will report this to the GAO’s intramural team picnic chairperson.
Yahoo to Out Google Google
February 19, 2010
I remember when the kids were young. I had to endure some films with titles like Friday the 13th, Part 2, Friday the 13th, The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th, Part VII, and (my favorite) Jason Goes to Hell, the Final Friday. Well, it wasn’t the final Friday, there was Jason X. When I read about a new search wizard at Yahoo and how Yahoo will become a powerhouse in search, it’s Jason time.
I read “Yahoo! Looks beyond Google’s Data Cruncher” and shivered. It’s back! The article reports without the zing I associate with the Register that Google has a laser dot on its scaly forehead. Googzilla’s data methods are toast. According to the write up:
But for Ron Brachman – the former Bell Labs and DARPA man who now serves as vice president of Yahoo! labs and research – a future interwebs may need something very different. MapReduce splinters compute tasks into tiny pieces that are processed independently of each other, and this sort of parallelism by complete separation, he argues, may be ill-suited to a more nuanced breed of web application. One example is a web that leans heavily on natural language processing. “When we get closer to doing broad-scale language processing that’s more, if you will, semantic, we might need to move away from a MapReduce architecture to something that may be equally parallel but with a very different computational architecture,” Brachman tells The Reg.
On paper, sure. In reality, not so sure. Yahoo is going to enter some sort of speed dating event with Microsoft. Yahoo is losing credibility with me because I have heard promises before. After my BearStearns report about Ramanathan Guha’s semantic inventions, a Yahoo poobah insisted that Yahoo had semantic technology that was going to put Google in a dark room with no candles.
What happened was staff cutting, reorganizing, lower revenues, and the same old search. Shopping search, which was unusable, and remains less useful to me than Bing.com’s approach.
My view. Roll out a service that delivers on point results. The PR buzz causes me to put in ear plugs. Have you ever seen a goose with ear plugs. Very weird. Almost as weird as viewing Google’s data management infrastructure, system, and methods as frozen in time. When you read it in a patent, it is too late in my opinion. Google has moved on when the patent applications are filed.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2010
No one paid me to write this. I will report getting no money to the White House which seems to know everything there is to know about the Google. Well, almost everything.
Quote to Note: Yahoo Search Speak
February 15, 2010
Yahoo is an enigma. One day it is embracing Bing, the next it is back in the search game. I find Yahoo a distant fifth when I run my queries. In fact, I have popped the little-known metasearch system Devilfinder.com ahead of Yahoo. I wanted to document a quote to note from Shashi Seth, senior vice president of search products, Yahoo. The quote is from a press conference held in February 2010 with a summary posted on February 12, 2010 in the write up “Highlights from Yahoo Search Speak”. The quote:
“Yahoo! has been in search, is in search, and will continue to be in search in the future,” Shashi said at SearchSpeak. “That is the stake we have put in the ground and we will continue to drive great features.”
Mr. Seth joined Yahoo from AOL, an outfit attracting Googlers. At AOL he was the officer in charge of Global Ad Products, which from the goose’s vantage point, is not search. Ads are one facet of search. HIs LinkedIn profile points out that he was the chief revenue officer at Cooliris and was the head of monetizaton at YouTube.com and was the product lead for Google search from May 2005 to January 2007. Prior to joining Google, he was in charge of product strategy at eBay.
Selling ads is not search to me. Selling ads is part of sales. I will stick with search in the archaic sense; that is, finding information that answers my questions which only sometimes involves purchasing a product or service. Too bad there was a power failure so that the entire Search Speak event was not captured on video. Ah, Yahooooooo!
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2010
No one paid me to snag this quote. Since a quote is semi-scholarly, I will report this lack of compensation to the fine folks at the Library of Congress.
Yahoo Slide Ahead?
February 14, 2010
I have not paid much attention to Yahoo. I check every couple of months to see if the search system is getting better or Binged. So far. Status quo as far as I can tell. I have a sense that Yahoo is following the path worn in the digital forest by AOL. With an influx of Googlers, AOL may have a chance. Yahoo in my opinion thinks that it is a Google-level outfit. Maybe? Maybe not. When I read “Icahn Unloads Most of Yahoo Stake”, I realized that a savvy investor may feel that Yahoo is not going anywhere quickly. The MarketWatch story contained one comment I found interesting:
Icahn reported holding nearly 12 million shares of Yahoo as of the end of December [2009], according to the filing. The high-profile activist investor had owned more than 75 million shares of Yahoo at one point, and reported holding 62.9 million shares as recently as September.
Looks like Mr. Ichan is rethinking his investment in Yahoo. What does his smart money tell us? I don’t get happiness vibes, but I could be misreading a sale of shares when the market is conflicted.
Stephen E Arnold, February 14, 2010
No one paid me to write this. I will report this state of financial non input to the Bureau of Public Debt.
Google and Bing: The November Horse Race Results
December 21, 2009
Through the complex route of Yahoo, I read Barry Levine’s “Google Is Galloping Way Ahead as Bing Moves Up.” I live in Kentucky, so the horse analogy is interesting. The search market is not a horse race. The search market is an interesting manifestation of information usage.
Guess what you can buy for dinner here. Which search engine logo will be mounted on the wall?
Without substantive change in human behavior, there is little likelihood that Google will lose its lead any time soon. The analogies to horses abound in the Newsfactor story. I like metaphors. I enjoyed “They Shoot Horses Don’t They”, and I like to window shop at the boucheries chevalines.
For me the key point in the write up was:
The competition, said Information Technology Intelligence Corp.’s Laura DiDio, is like “everyone being way behind Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont Stakes,” where the legendary racehorse “looked like he was racing against himself.” In the race for second place, DiDio added, the “momentum goes to Bing.” She noted that Microsoft’s entry into search has gained two percent since May, Yahoo’s has dropped from 20.5 percent, and Google appears to be stabilizing in its way-out-front position. Measured as query volume, Bing had the largest growth of the top search engines in November, with a six percent increase in volume. Yahoo’s dropped two percent, and Google’s edged up one percent. comScore’s stats include partner and cross-channel searches, but not searches for mapping, local directory, or user-generated video sites. The actual number of searches was about 9.5 billion for Google, 2.5 billion for Yahoo, 1.5 billion for Bing, 548 million for Ask, and 401 million for AOL.
The question for me is which of these nags will end up on the grill?
Stephen E. Arnold, December 19, 2009
I wish to disclose a free write up to the USDA, an entity focused on making sure I eat beef, chicken, and the other white meat, not losers of horse races.
Yahoo and Panic
November 19, 2009
ZDNet’s “Yahoo’s Dwindling Search Share: Time to Panic?” is a blend of business analysis and technology. Toss in Yahoo and there is an element of the carnival because Yahoo has put on quite a show for advertisers, customers, and stakeholders. ZDNet said:
Yahoo is in a dangerous limbo here. Yahoo’s search team is more likely to be focused on sending resumes than advancing the ball. Advertisers are holding out for the deal to close before picking sides and they’re likely to go to the alpha male in the Microhoo deal—Microsoft. And the biggest problem: Google isn’t standing still.
Spot on. I wonder if this analysis is coming too late for Yahoo? Let me answer my own question. “Yes.” Yahoo will be a case study in many MBA classes. “One day Terry Semel sat in his office and dreamed of making Yahoo into a media company…” You know how this business case unfolds. Business case studies are not news; they are in the rear view mirror of some folks.
Stephen Arnold, November 19, 2009
I disclose the the Securities and Exchange Commission that no one paid me to offer this comment. I may get a free lunch from another company today, but that outfit is mostly indifferent to the drama that is Yahoo.
Yahoo and Real Time Search
November 5, 2009
I thought Yahoo said it was going to make search a priority. I assumed that its wizards and wizardettes would tap their inner coders. Wrong if I understand the TechCrunch story “OneRiot Confirms They’re Building Yahoo’s Real Time Search Engine”. How is Yahoo going to respond to the real time search need? Yahoo is working with OneRiot. I like the OneRiot service, but I think the deal makes clear that Yahoo’s top management has more confidence in the “buy” approach than the “make” approach. This deal suggests to me that Yahoo’s own search wizards and wizardettes are either busy with other tasks or not up to the rigors of the real time search task. Just my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, November 5, 2009
I want to alert DHS that I received zero consideration for this blog post about Yahoo’s search wizardry.
Microsoft and Yahoo Redo
October 30, 2009
I read “Microsoft and Yahoo Delay Signing Search Deal” and heard Yogi Berra say, “It’s déjà vu all over again”. Why am I not surprised. The post deal melt down deal involved no cash but lots of “goodwill”. How did Silicon Alley Insider learn about the “delay”? Yahoo disclosed this item in an SEC filing. Hmmm. Subtle on Yahoo’s part but not sufficiently subtle for Nicholas Carlson, who noticed the item. He wrote:
We reached out to Yahoo and got back a statement that sounds almost exactly like the SEC filing: “’Microsoft and Yahoo! are committed to this agreement and believe this is a highly competitive deal that is good for consumers, advertisers and publishers. We have made good progress in finalizing the definitive agreements. Given the complex nature of this transaction there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details. So, the teams at Yahoo! and Microsoft are continuing to work on the remaining details, and we have mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the agreement. We plan to do this as expeditiously as possible. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010.’”
Actions speak louder than words. Top line revenue growth or the lack thereof speak even more loudly. Google must be giggling in the Googleplex. With each day that passes, the gap between Google and its competitors increases. Ask.com seems to be crying, “Uncle.” As I said in 2007 much to the annoyance of a 20-something, “Game over in Web search.”
Next up for Microsoft and Yahoo? Real time search. Google is lagging in this sector. Maybe that’s the future for Yahoo?
Stephen Arnold, October 30, 2009
No gifts on my Halloween skeleton for this article.
Web Search Market Share
October 27, 2009
A 20 something bristled in 2007 when I pointed out in a paid lecture that Google had won the search battle. The person insisted that Microsoft, Yahoo, and a raft of newcomers were going to Grandpa Google’s ankle. I dismissed the 20 something and promptly learned that she embarked on a campaign of telling anyone who would listen that I was addled. No big deal since I am addled and I document my addledness in this Web log each day.
However, I somewhat reluctantly, point you and her to “Bing’s Search Share Uncertain as Yahoo’s Share Falls”. A 20 something will probably believe another 20 something before she accepts facts from a person old enough to be her grandfather.
The write up said:
Microsoft had high hopes for gaining search-market traction at Google’s expense when it announced a search partnership with Yahoo earlier this year. However, Yahoo racked up a search loss of one percentage point in September in comparison with August, and a loss of five percentage points since the same time last year, according to Compete. Google served fewer queries in the month as well, “but because of the drop in overall volume across the engines, Google’s search share stayed stable at close to 73 percent,” Madjarac explained. Looking at the bigger picture, StatCounter reported that Bing’s search share declined on a global basis from 3.58 percent to 3.25 percent in September. Moreover, the same global trend was mirrored at Microsoft’s new search partner, the Web analytics firm said. Yahoo saw its search share fall to 4.37 percent from 4.84 percent, said the Dublin-based firm, which bases its worldwide analyses on 4.6 billion search-engine clicks. By contrast, Google boosted its status as the global search leader by increasing its share by more than two percentage points in September to 80.08 percent, StatCounter added.
With Google’s market share into the 80 percent range, plus or minus five percent, I am not sure if the wild and crazy, uninformed 20 something understands that the Google has won the Web search war. Maybe the Google is vulnerable in real time search? Maybe the Google will stumble as Microsoft rolls out the stellar Fast ESP. Maybe?
Looks like the Google is doing its Googley thing despite the 20 somethings delusional view of what is going on in Web search.
Stephen Arnold, October 27, 2009
A freebie from a train station no less. I did get a free apple juice. Does that count?
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