Attensity Empolis Forum
July 22, 2009
Quite an interesting Web log post “Empolis Executive Forum 2009”. There are links to selected presentations. What struck me is that the Forum seemed closer to the types of shindigs that consulting firms use to sell clients their services. Attensity is a content processing firm with some clever analytics. One talk that struck me as interesting was the keynote by Club of Rome member described this way:
The second day of the forum started with a keynote talk about “Globalization and Shaping the Future: What will be after the crisis?” by Prof. Franz Josef Radermacher…. He reported on the possible futures of our world, i.e. three possible scenarios how the world economy could evolve. Some of these ideas can be found online in an interview. For Radermacher, a key problem that the human kind must solve, is how to feed the growing human population on earth, how to deal with hunger and poverty. Besides its political dimension, his talk was a mind opener, i.e. it stipulated discussion and helped people taking new perspectives even on technical topics.
This type of marketing is a blend of big thoughts and semantic nuts and bolts is quite different from the “pass the ammunition” type of talks some large software vendors host. The question in my mind: Is Attensity licensing software or selling services?
Stephen Arnold, July 22, 2009
Data.gov Revealed
July 22, 2009
Mashable ran an analysis by Jim Hendler called “What’s in Data.gov?” I must admit that I have not set aside the time necessary to figure out what this new government service offers. I am a bit jaded when it comes to government information. The Web accessible content is often interesting, but I find it less helpful than information that I have seen in the course of my projects for a number of countries’ governmental entities. In short, the good stuff is rarely online. What is online, is often baffling to me because basic metadata such as the date the document was created and last changed are often missing. Even the author is elusive. Locating a person who knows about a particular document can be an exercise in frustration. Mr. Hendler’s write up explains what is in Data.gov. For me, the most interesting comment was:
Not all of the datasets have a link to downloadable data because some offer only browseable data via their own websites, Others publish datasets in multiple formats. As of today, the online static files associated with the datasets are distributed as follows: 204 datasets offer a CSV format dump, 10 datasets offer an XML format dump, and 21 datasets offer an XLS format dump.
In short, a promising start but inconsistent, incomplete, and fragmented. Governments are not particularly skilled in electronic publishing. Progress is evident however.
Stephen Arnold, July 22, 2009
Microsoft Lovers Rejoice: Google Chrome Is a Loser
July 22, 2009
i enjoyed the write up “Why Google’s Chrome OS will Turn to Lead” by Preston Gralla. Mr. Gralla makes a number of points that will resonate with Microsoft’s engineers and marketers. For instance, Google has zero experience writing drivers. Chrome will need drivers galore. Ergo Google will have to spend money and time getting its act together in an area in which Microsoft is skilled. Mr. Gralla offers a number of other observations about Chrome. Instead of looking like a bumper on a show car, Chrome will “turn to lead”. For me, one of the more interesting comments was:
So, just what will Chrome OS do? It will tarnish the Google brand and eat up precious company resources on a project with no clear benefit. The company will be less able to launch new projects with potentially larger payoffs.
I think Chrome is neither fish nor fowl. It is not a browser; it’s a walled garden. It’s not an operating system; it’s an air lock to hook a computing device to the Google mother ship. Google likes to make things simple. So operating system it is. I think Chrome has some rust spots. Security anyone? However, like Microsoft Google improves and refines with each iteration. Unlike Microsoft, Google iterates at odd times and ways.
The important point is that Google does not have to rush. Eventually Chrome will be refinished and folks like Mr. Gralla will have to try to figure out what the heck Google has built. Dataspace container, anyone?
Stephen Arnold, July 22, 2009
SharePoint Search Versions Explained
July 21, 2009
I have a tough time remembering what version of SharePoint does what. Chandima.Net Blog takes a whack at this subject in his “What Version of SharePoint Search Is Capable of Doing What?” The title promised a great deal, but the write up itself offers several useful comments and a killer link. You can download an Excel spreadsheet that provides a good run down of features and changes in SharePoint search. You can get the Excel file here. If the link doesn’t work for you, try downloading the file fr0om Chandima.net here. There’s a passing reference to Fast Search, but nothing substantive on that front in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, July 21, 2009
YellowBrix Content Processing
July 21, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to this demonstration of YellowBrix’s automated content processing system. YellowBrix is a content processing company offering proprietary contextual matching and analytic processing. The company has added sentiment analysis to its technology arsenal. You can see the system in action by navigating to http://www.intelliclix.com/index.nsp?sid=bp&pid=6&demo=1&category=Internet. You can sign up for a free trial on this page as well. YellowBrix is located in the Washington, DC area. The firm offers services that are similar to those available from Connotate and Relegence.
Stephen Arnold, July 21, 2009
Google News Features
July 21, 2009
ReadWriteWeb’s “Google Removes Alerts, RSS Buttons from News” explains broken functions. Marshall Kirkpatriick reported:
Inbal Drukker, a senior associate at Google News, said on the first and sixth of July that there are “engineering changes” underway to “improve Google News.” So what seems like a loss today could end up for the better in the long run, but for now there seems to be a problem.
Google News has been an interesting service. I have heard a number of informed observers explain that the service is in beta and undergoing constant improvement. Another Google watcher suggested to me that Google News was a money loser because selling ads on the site would trigger a cat fight. One person who had taken advantage of a hospitality room’s “hospitality” opined that the “real alerts” were available from Indigo Stream’s GoogleAlert service.
My research suggests that Google News is an important demonstration of Google’s automatic classification, its ability to process a range of languages, and generate a meaningful, newspaper like interface. The number of sources Google processes is large, but I have not been able to obtain a specific number. Estimates vary, and Google does a thorough job.
Google News does have some major weak spots; for instance:
- News is a Google collection and updates seem to be in the two to five minute range for some stories. The problem is that real time search demands faster content processing. Google News underscores the sluggishness of the service. Run the same query on Twitter and then on Google News and judge for yourself.
- The copyright issues bubble beneath the surface of Google News. I find the lack of advertising an indication that Google is walking softly.
- The news function running in my “ig” or “individualized Google” strikes me as useful. When I log in, I find that the “news” function more relevant to my interests. Google News is hooked into to other Google services, so there is more to the service than a list of headlines, snippets, and links.
Perhaps the Google News enhancements coming will get Google in the real time search game? The issues with Google News have persisted for a couple of years. The big “right now” problem in my opinion is Google News’s lack of real time, Twitter search-type indexing. Is Google spreading itself to thin? Has Yahoo’s peanut butter problem surfaced at Google News?
Stephen Arnold, July 21, 2009
Applications or Plumbing: The Money Makers for the Internet
July 21, 2009
I recall reading that Google perceives applications as important but secondary to the broader computing ecosystem. The BBC expressed a contrarian view in “Apps to Be as Big as Internet.” The BBC argument advanced by Maggie Shiels is that an executive from GetJar made this assertion and the BBC reported it. Ms. Shiels wrote:
To date, Apple runs the most popular application store with over 65,000 applications. Last week it notched up another milestone with 1.5 billion downloads. Its success was a shock both to Apple and the industry. However, every smartphone company is trying to replicate it, from BlackBerry makers Research in Motion to the world’s biggest mobile phone business, Nokia.
Ms. Shiels includes Google’s point of view. She wrote:
But Google’s engineering vice president Vic Gundotra told the conference that the application store trend is just a fad and that the focus will shift to powerful browsers as the main mechanism for delivering services. “Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning. “We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing,” Mr Gundotra told the conference.
I liked her write up. Several observations flitted through the addled goose’s mind:
First, applications are a subset of plumbing. Without an infrastructure on which to build and deploy applications, applications are dependent. Once the plumbing is in place, software ecologies spring up. The battle to follow, in my opinion, is the plumbing war. He who gets the plumbing gets annuity money.
Second, applications in the aggregate are how people access the plumbing. The challenge for application developers will be to support the “right” platform. Pick the wrong platform and a good application will not make much if any money. The key decision then is which platforms can a developer support. Candidates are Apple’s, Google’s, Microsoft’s, Oracle’s and a handful of others. The platform with the broadest reach into lucrative markets is a key factor for a developer to consider.
Third, search is the essential first step in accessing any digital content. As a result, a platform with robust search and reach will have an advantage over a platform with out those characteristics. Apple iTunes “works” because it is an integrated solution. Can Amazon, Google, Microsoft, or any other competitor wrest users from Apple’s ecosystem?
My thought is that in the platform wars, size matters. In the application skirmishes, solving a user’s problem wins. In my experience, applications get attention because these are where the rubber meets the road for the user. Over time, however, I think the money from utility services will be big, stable, and outside the reach of individuals and smaller organizations. This means that there will be more developers than plumbing companies.
The key decision, then, is picking a platform or platforms to ride in the money derby.
Stephen Arnold, July 21, 2009
Search Engine Types
July 21, 2009
The South African Web site IOLTechnology has a useful run down of its view of the types of Web search engines. I download “Moving beyond Bing.” Useful.
Stephen Arnold, July 20, 2009
Intelligenx and GoLocal247
July 20, 2009
The User-Friendly Phone Book, part of the GoLocal247.com network, has signed on with Intelligenx, http://www.Intelligenx.com, to pump up its search capability. Intelligenx is a leading provider of faceted search technology in the field of Internet Yellow Pages and Local area Search. The phone book network users will use Intelligenx’s Discovery engine to search and find thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses that include reviews, coupons, etc. The hope is that Intelligenx’s platform with its extensive search-and-filtering capabilities, state-of-the-art linguistics, and advanced search functionalities will drive usage of the site, leading to increased online income. User-Friendly publishes 36 phone book directories in seven states.
MarkLogic Enhances Search Capability
July 20, 2009
Mark Logic Corporation, http://www.marklogic.com, a provider of infrastructure software for information-centric applications, has today released the MarkLogic Sever 4.1, the newest version of its XML server, a platform for creating and deploying new information systems. Features allow for building metadata catalogs, validation of documents through information inventory, secure communications support, and more. It’s all packaged with a search program to facilitate eDiscovery information access. At the same time the company is releasing its Application Services 1.0, a suite of programs for building information applications to explore newly acquired content or data feeds. It includes a dynamic search API to serve up code so applications won’t have to be written by hand and a library API for document search and control. A happy quack to MarkLogic’s engineers for these new features.
Jessica Bratcher, July 20, 2009
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