Bing 2.0 Means Goodbye Google?
September 12, 2009
I read a post about how wonderful SharePoint 10 will be for * everyone *. Sounded like Tiny Tim because there were zero facts. Mary Jo Foley’s write up had some but I was not convinced. With Google and Facebook and Twitter snagging wizards, Microsoft has to pay a lot for semi-wizards. When semi-wizards tell me that Bing 2.0 means “goodbye Google”, I don’t assign that a high probability. You may, of course, and you may love SharePoint. Good for you. You can read Ms. Foley’s backhand praise volley in “Microsoft’s Bing 2.0: Coming this Fall (Maybe Even Next Week)” and judge for yourself. Don’t let the addled goose’s reality medicine dissuade you. The hopeful comment in my opinion was this statement with a Twitter source:
“BING 2.0 terrific !! watch out guys ! Bing + Silverlight in maps = amazing !! goodbye Google”.
As I documented in my CENDI talk about next generation data management, duplicating what Google has will not close the gap between Microsoft and Google. Just my opinion because doing what Google has done is not good enough. Just as recycling Fast ESP will not be good enough for the type of information access that users require in the aftermath of the financial bloodbath.
Stephen Arnold, September 12, 2009
Sony Is Looking for Revenue in Interesting Places
September 12, 2009
I don’t know if this story in Kotaku is accurate. I found it odd and somewhat disturbing. I don’t care much about Sony after buying one of their cameras that used a proprietary driver to create a mini CD. Never worked. Good bye, Sony. But Google has a bit of a crush on Sony, so I am using my Overflight service to watch the former Japanese superstar in the intramural leagues. What did I spy? “Adult Films Push For Presence on Gaming Consoles.” The most interesting comment in the write up was:
“Our point is pretty simple,” Hirsch [X rated content executive] told Kotaku. “As long as age verification is in place that (Sony) feels comfortable with we see no reason why adults shouldn’t be allowed to access adult movies on the Playstation 3.”
I do not want to think about the implications for books on Sony’s new line of eBook readers. I don’t know much about the PSP, but it sounds like something kids would use. I suppose desperation leads to a certain ingenuity.
Stephen Arnold, September 12, 2009
Microsoft and Open Source: An Oxymoron?
September 12, 2009
Gavin Clark’s “Microsoft Throws $1 Million Open Source Party” triggered the mice in the back of my head to run in circles. Mr. Clark does a good job of pointing out how IBM used open source to jab Sun Microsystems in the liver. He also runs down some of the issues regarding Microsoft’s push into open source. I downloaded the story and tucked it in my open source file. I think this is a turning point for open source. With Google and Microsoft jumping on the bandwagon and hooking amplifiers to the open source song, life is going to become – well, let me speak candidly – just like life today. The name of the game is selling services, consulting, and engineering. The software license fees are not where the annuities lurk. Mr. Clark said:
Microsoft, meanwhile, has a notoriously rocky relationship with open source. Sections of the organization have tried to repair the damage, but Microsoft has only ever engaged tactically with open source and never joined an independent or accepted open source organizations.
I agree, but I think Microsoft will define open source its own way. With its marketing clout and legions of fawning partners, open source has to get off the mat and go another round. See that smirk on Microsoft’s open source face? Open source did not put a glove on Microsoft in round one. Bing. There goes the bell.
Now race to read Sam Gustin’s “Microsoft: Yep, We Teach Best Buy to Trash Linux“. That’s a nice touch if true.
Stephen Arnold, September 12, 2009
Microsoft: Yep, we teach Best Buy to trash Linux
Microsoft and the Ostrich Strategy
September 11, 2009
I read a couple of posts about the ban on Apple iPhones at the big Deathstar shindig. Assume these stories are accurate. You can get a flavor of the story line by reading either “CEO Oh No He Didn’t” or use Google news and search for Ballmer iPhone. The point is that problems go away when one denies that there is a problem.I call this the Ostrich Strategy. I read a book about big goofs in history. I noted that some of them – e.g., the Maginot line – implemented this strategy. Questionable pay off in my opinion. How do you leapfrog when you don’t embrace and understand the “as is” world.
Stephen Arnold, September 11, 2009
Google Becomes a Bunny thats Cuddles
September 11, 2009
I was surprised to read in several different stories that Google is tossing olive branches left, right, and sideways. Even the Google is savvy enough to know when lots of guns aim at Googzilla. Googzilla is tough but Googzilla knows that Gulliver ended up hogtied with some small people standing on his forehead. You can get a sense of the shift by reading Wired’s “Amazon Scoffs at Google’s Offer to Share Book Search Sales”. The article explains Google’s olive branch and the Amazon response.
Several comments:
- I think the Google has realized that it may have a fight on its hands with or without its controversial settlement.
- Google’s cavalier attitude may have contributed to the controversy. Its attempts to assuage fear takes place as the company hops in the sleeping bag with Sony, a company with an interesting track record in treating its paying customers with respect.
- The amount of money sunk into the Books project is now sufficiently large that Google wants to craft some type of deal without pushing the button on thermonuclear information war; specifically, Google could go directly to authors and become a publisher. Google can promote, deliver, and collect for these original work.
My hunch is that Google is going to give the Cold War tactics a try. But that button is sitting there begging to be pushed. What happens if shareholders demand that Google maximize its revenues by becoming a full service, vertically integrated publisher. I would jump from my four publishers to Google in a heart beat. The Google can definitely sell online. Someday maybe?
Stephen Arnold, September 11, 2009
YAGG: Google Checkout
September 11, 2009
Google, according to Tom Krazit, has another technical glitch. You can get the details in “Recurring Problems with Google Checkout.” YAGG means “yet another Google glitch.” At a Google reception in Washington, DC, on September 8, 2009, I watched eager Googlers run the game plan. The consistency of the pitch is commendable, but unless the plumbing is stable, a consistent pitch won’t offset concerns about technical frangibility. For me the most interesting comment in Mr. Krazit’s write up was:
“As a young technology company we always admired Google. Their many free tools and applications are amazing and the support that comes with them is great too. It’s disappointing to all of us at Datto Inc. that these fixable occurrences regarding Google’s payment processing has tainted our admiration of the people who changed the web, and that Google has chosen to provide no support to the many businesses paying to use Google Checkout,” Braband wrote in an e-mail. And that could be a real problem for Google as it attempts to build paid services around products like Google Apps. Even small businesses are accustomed to developing relationships with their suppliers that can help smooth over the inevitable problems that occur in any business relationship.
Datto might be a mouse beneath the Google Hummer. But if enough mice coordinate as mice have in the Google Book sector, the Google might have another mess on its hands, er, in its paws. Search can be automated. Keeping customers and cheerleaders happy may be amenable to the indifference of mathematicians.
Stephen Arnold, September 11, 2009
Arnold at CENDI
September 11, 2009
Stephen E. Arnold, managing partner of Arnold Information Technology (ArnoldIT.com) and our Beyond Search guru, gave the keynote address at an invitation-only conference organized by the CENDI, interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information (STI) managers from 13 U.S. federal agencies Wednesday at the headquarters of the National Technical Information Service in Alexandria, Virginia. You can read a version of his two hour lecture here. CENDI representatives received a briefing on the challenges of changing information technology, particularly as related to the Internet and Google, and how those challenges may affect the federal government. Feedback from the attendees was, according to the email sent today (September 10, 2009), “We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on your section of the day.”
Our own Mr. Arnold summarized the current climate of online information access, covering how data is organized and how users access it. “Google has building blocks. What is important for the U.S. government is that some firms have already begun to use Google tools to deliver dataspace functions today,” Arnold said. He asserted what users generally want when they search online, what they usually find, and what questions the “new wave” of search systems will raise, including implications for personal privacy, commercial information companies and government agencies generating content.
Jessica Bratcher, September 11, 2009
IBM ClearQuest
September 11, 2009
I know. I know. IBM has many search systems. I spotted this two part discussion of an IBM search engine for its configuration management system. The system is Lucene and Solr but rebranded by IBM as ClearQuest. If you want to get IBM’s take on the Lucene Solr system, you will want to read and save Part One titled “The Full-Text Search feature in IBM Rational ClearQuest, Version 7.1: Part 1. Search Overview and Use Cases”. Part Two — The Full-Text Search Feature in IBM Rational ClearQuest, Version 7.1: Part 2. Install the Components” – provides some information. You may need to do some digging (actually quite a bit) to get the system up and running. If you get stuck, your friendly IBM office will provide the technical support you need to get search working your way. The business model for open source solutions in my opinion is becoming more like the relationship of a human host and the Candiru. I know that open source adherents strongly object to my simplification. Open source is a “free market” world like the present search market has more catches than super Velcro. Has IBM become altruistic? I think not. Just my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, September 11, 2009
Another Google Financial Services Baby Step
September 10, 2009
I learned from Internet.com’s “Google to Add Android Payment Options” an interesting factoid:
The news of additional payment options comes on the heels of criticism from some developers who voiced concern over having Checkout — which has yet to become widely adopted — as the sole option for payment processing, as well as frustration over Google’s 24-hour buy-and-try return policy.
How much will Google’s “additional payment options” add to Google’s fledgling and somewhat sparse line up of financial functions? Is Google becoming more responsive to inputs from non Googlers? A little addition here and a little addition there may add up to something. I estimate 18 to 24 months for the picture to gain clarity.
Stephen Arnold, September 10, 2009
10 Google Belly Flops
September 10, 2009
Short honk: If you like the root for the home team, a loss is painful. Well, those who want to snicker at Google may find the eWeek article “Enterprise Applications: 10 Google Services That Failed and Why” a vicarious thrill. Google the indomitable tallies 10 failures. Exciting for some, just not for me. The analysis of the causes of failure struck me as weak, but eWeek is a tech trade publication, not a Harvard Business Review. Enjoy.
Stephen Arnold, September 10, 2009
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