Another Angle on Google Fast Flip
September 19, 2009
I think the pictures are too low rez to be useful. I found the interface clunky. But IT World Canada ran a story that gave me a reason to think more highly of flip. “Why Google Fast Flip Is a Better Fit for Enterprise IT” looked at Fast Flip and concluded that an enterprise may find it useful. The article points out the dumping content in repositories does not make it easy to find exactly what an employee needs. That’s true and an understatement. After making this point, IT World Canada asserted:
This is where something like Fast Flip could shine. Imagine if it could capture the most important points of a white paper, a company-wide memo or a business plan that may or may not be worth an executive’s time. Some publishers are already wondering – and rightly so – whether Google’s Fast Flip will only make their lives worse by giving more away of an individual story and providing even less incentive for readers to pursue the rest of it. This isn’t a concern in the enterprise world, where the problem is precisely one of identifying salient details quickly and efficiently.
I agree. The problem is change, money, and Microsoft. Fast Flip is available in a mystical, fuzzy beta. Microsoft’s storm troopers are readying the new interface for SharePoint search using elements from the Bing.com product image display and the multi-panel, point-and-click interface that adorns Fast ESP. The plumbing for Fast ESP may not be Google grade, but the marketing machine at Microsoft is pumped up like Brock Lesner.
Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009
Interse Bought by ScanJour
September 18, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to a PDF file with a date of December 2008. Interse was, according to a ScanJour news release, purchased by Scan Jour A/S. The Ibox search technology developed by Interse will be used in Scan Jour products. The description of Interse in the release was:
“Ibox technology is a well-proven, metadata-driven search solution used by leading organizations worldwide since 2005.” says Chief Marketing Officer Jakob Brix at Scan·Jour. “We’ve been watching IBox develop for some time, and jumped at the opportunity to acquire this technology for the benefit of our public customers and other customers in regulated
industries.”
Scan Jour’s description of itself uses the phrase “case management”. I don’t know what that phrase means. I will update the European search vendor table to reflect this buy out. Clicking through the Interse Web site, I found little information about the deal. The Scan Jour Web site did not provide much information either. On the surface, it appears that Interse’s SharePoint centric engine is available from the Interse team. Scan Jour appears to have included the Interse system in its other information management products. Some investigation lies in the future.
Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009
Google Government, Will It Play in Canberra?
September 18, 2009
Short honk: For a preview of the Google pitch to government procumrement officials and policy planners, you will want to read ITWire.com’s “Gov 2.0: Google Targets Public Sector.” The write up does a great job of summarizing the value proposition and the spin Google is likely to use as it pushes into government sales. In fact, the article is clear and more concise than the info delivered at the Government 2.0 conference in DC two weeks ago.
Stephen Arnold, September 19, 2009
Google Nails Its Data Record Analysis Method
September 18, 2009
Short honk: The ever reliable USPTO granted the Google US7,590,620 on September 15, 2009. The title is “System and Method for Analyzing Data Records”. The abstract for the invention by two Google super wizards (Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean) and a number of super wizards to be states:
A method and system for analyzing data records includes allocating groups of records to respective processes of a first plurality of processes executing in parallel. In each respective process of the first plurality of processes, for each record in the group of records allocated to the respective process, a query is applied to the record so as to produce zero or more values. Zero or more emit operators are applied to each of the zero or more produced values so as to add corresponding information to an intermediate data structure. Information from a plurality of the intermediate data structures is aggregated to produce output data.
Big deal in the addled goose’s opinion.
Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009
Google Bing Market Share from Nielsen Megaview
September 18, 2009
I read the Mashable write up about Bing.com’s 22 percent jump in search market share between July and August 2009. The summary was good. I am skeptical about online traffic reports and market share break outs. Let’s assume these are spot on. One interesting item was that Yahoo’s share of the search market decreased. Interesting. The other point that struck me was the decrease in Comcast’s search market share. It dropped 21 percent. I did not know Comcast had a search service. Google, according to the data, suffered no decrease in market share. Growth was modest. The Google held a 65 percent share of the search market, which I assume was US only. This 65 percent number is below the anecdotal Google search market share I heard at a reception in Washington, DC last week. The battle is likely to be a long term one, and I wonder if Yahoo can deal with Microsoft’s possible incursions.
Stephen Arnold, September 18, 2009
European Search Vendors Additions
September 18, 2009
Happy quacks to the readers who sent in suggestions for the European search vendor table. I do know about ZyLAB. My recollection is that this company is owned by a firm in the Netherlands, but the technology was acquired from a US firm. The same is true of Ixquick, now owned by a company in Europe, maybe Belgium. Ixquick is on my radar because it is one of the search systems that does not store the user’s IP address. A small step in the right direction, but the Adobe acquisitions of Omniture is a long jump in the other direction. Yes, those wonderful Flash cookies. At any rate, I am not including ZyLAB or Ixquick.com in the European search vendor list.
I have, however, added these four companies to the table which we will post on the ArnoldIT.com Web site in the near future.
| Vendor | Function | Opinion |
| Neofonie | Vertical search | Founded in the late 1990s, created Fireball.de |
| Ontoprise GmbH | Semantic search | The firm’s semantic Web infrastructure product, OntoBroker, is at Version 5.3 |
| PolySpot | Enterprise search with workflow | Now at Version 4.8, search, work flow, and faceted navigation |
| Sinequa | Enterprise search with workflow | Now at Version 7, the system includes linguistic tools |
Two of these companies were “new” to me, and I have little information in my Overflight system about these search systems. We will update our crawl list to correct this oversight. Two firms—PolySpot and Sinequa—are in our system. Omitting them was an error on my part.
What strikes me as unusual is that most of the search vendors in the Overflight system get very little coverage in the news sources I monitor. I did some Web site traffic look ups, and I discovered that most of the vendors’ Web sites get very little traffic as well.
Little wonder that the various “awards”, “quadrants”, and “waves” are potential gold mines for the azure chip consultants who operate these services. Marketing, not broad news coverage or even technology, seems to be the name of the game in enterprise search. I am also struck by the number of companies working to build scalable revenues in what is a tough market sector.
Stephen Arnold, September 18, 2009
Google Publishing Paperbacks
September 17, 2009
I read on the Digital Trends Web site a story titled “Google to Reincarnate Digital Books as Paperbacks.” You should read the full story. It provides the spin that most Google watchers expect. The idea is that Google will hook up with an on demand publishing outfit and generate softbounds (paperbacks) of public domain titles.
Sounds good. Seems to be semi-useful.
Based on my research for Google: The Digital Gutenberg, Google is taking another tentative step toward its Hollywood studio approach to information. You can get more detail in my new monograph, available as part of my Google trilogy or as a stand alone report.
I find it interesting that few in the publishing industry understand that Google can go directly to an author, cut a deal, publish, sell, and otherwise make use of * original * content. What will this do to the traditional publishing industry * if * – note the “if” – Google exercises this option? Disruption is too modest a term for the effect. I document the Google effect in my first Google study. Now the publishing industry can experience the thrill of its potential.
Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009
Obama, Google, and Bridges
September 17, 2009
On September 23, 2009, I will be participating in a two hour program “Change 2010: Responding to Real Time Information, Open Systems and the Obama IT Vision”. The program is sponsored by Somat Engineering, a diversified technology company located in Detroit, Michigan. The purpose of the program is to explore ways the US government can tap into Google technology without disrupting Federal agencies’ existing information technology infrastructure.
“The Obama administration’s push towards transparency and more open government means that Federal information technology managers need to explore more open systems,” said Arpan Patel, Director of Somat Engineering’s Information Engineering practice. “There is a compelling need to understand the differences and bridge the gaps between traditional methods of information management and the increasingly fast propagation of open methods.”
The first segment is “Open Systems and Existing Architectures: Engineering to Control Costs and Enabling Dataspaces.” Arpan Patel, director of Somat’s information engineering practice in DC, will discuss the basics of quantifying the costs and time required for system integration. The presentation will feature Somat’s TechCrunch50 recognized collaboration software Ripply, which uses dataspace technology to eliminate the “where is that latest document/message/response problem” that most organizations and working groups face. For more information about Somat, visit http://tech.somateng.com.
Robert D. Steele, an expert in open source intelligence, will address the need for decision makers to plug into the flows of real time information that are now widely available. Mr. Steele has been active in a range of government intelligence initiatives, and he is the CEO of OSS Inc. and founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Center, as well as creator of the global expeditionary analysis analytic model, will connect the dots between internal knowledge management, external social networking grids such as Facebook and Twitter, external offline information and non-English information, as well as the creation of Organizational Intelligence, or access to and exploitation of All Information in All Languages All the Time, the title of his third book. Mr. Steele will map four steps to “build a bridge” between these information sources. For more information about Mr. Steele, visit http://www.tinyurl.com/RDSTEELE.
Jim Orris, director of Adhere Solutions, the Google partner responsible for US Federal government sales, will review Google’s solutions for information integration and crafting more open solutions using Google’s platform and Web services to hook into traditional systems using Google compatible connectors and software. More information about Adhere Solutions is available from the firm’s Web site. Adhere Solutions is one of the focal points for Google’s US government activities. Adhere Solutions provides a wide range of engineering and consulting services for the Google Search Appliance, Google applications, and Google’s cloud services.
The event is hosted by Ram Ramanujam, President of Somat Engineering, an award winning, 8(a) technical services firm, headquartered in Detroit, MI, with offices in the US and abroad.
I accepted the invitation to be the facilitator for the question and answer session following the presentations.
The formal 60 minute program will deliver actionable information for all organizations. The program begins at 9:30 am with coffee and tea. Registration is $25. Registrations are accepted at http://bit.ly/ObamaITVisionBriefing.
Readers of this Web log will be admitted without charge. To take advantage of this offer, write seaky2000 at yahoo dot com. Space is limited in the National Press Club facility.
Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009
Data Liberation and the Enterprise
September 17, 2009
I like the Google logo for the Data Liberation Front.
I was browsing EnglishRussia.com the other evening. When I saw the DLF logo, I thought about some interesting posters from another era. Take a look yourself under Art. I thought about the DLF and the image when I read “How Google’s Data Liberation Front Can Boost Google Apps” in eWeek.
Clint Boulton’s article suggested that data portability – that is, moving data from Point A to Point B – is one of the key services of DLF. Now if Point A is Microsoft file format and Point B is a Google cloud application, I think the point of DLF is laser sharp and aimed at building Google’s enterprise service array.
For me, the most important comment in the article was:
Google has been gradually making it possible for Google App business users to move data in and out of Google Calendar and Google Docs, with plans to “liberate” Google Sites and enable users to do batch exports of files from Google Docs. Specifically, Fitzpatrick and his team are working to let business users export their entire Sites wiki as HTML with microformats. Users would be able to take and drop it into an Apache Web server. For Docs, Google is working to let users select multiple Docs files and export them in OpenOffice, HMTL or Microsoft formats. Google’s servers convert these files into ZIP files, and Apps users can e-mail these payloads to colleagues for collaboration. Google hopes these portability efforts will foster good will among customers. This is an important part of Google’s strategy as it seeks to take on Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others in SAAS collaboration.
I am not sure about the “goodwill” part, however.
Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009
http://www.dataliberation.org/
Interpreting the Microsoft Song about Mobile Search
September 17, 2009
I learned that Bing.com has almost 11 percent of the Web search market. That’s good. Competition in Web search can be useful. I spent some time looking at Hakia’s librarian-intermediated search results, Devilfinder.com (an interesting search engine from an individual in southern California), and a wheelbarrow full of European search systems. There are a couple of quite useful search systems and quite a few that a heavy on glitz and weak in usefulness to me. Armed with these recent experiences, I read The Register’s article “Microsoft Targets Google’s Mobile Dream with Bing”. The writing was clear, and I assume the message I carried away was close to what Microsoft’s Charles Songhurst intended. I read:
Microsoft had internalized a lot of what Google has been saying” in recent years on mobile search being worth more than PC-based search.
My interpretation was: Microsoft is studying Google and, where possible, trying to think like Google to beat Google.
I also noted:
He [Songhurst] noted Microsoft wants to get the search algorithms right for each market before promoting Bing locally. A key component of the Microsoft deal to buy Yahoo! is that Bing drives search in the markets served by Yahoo! during the next 10 years, which will give Microsoft time to build and tune the Bing algorithms to improve searches and returns.
My interpretation was: Microsoft is focusing on algorithms just like Google. Furthermore, the time line for Microsoft and search is 10 years. The push will conclude in 2019.
I have been documenting Google’s changes in public search such as the nifty “ig” (individualized Google) functions. I also try to mention the enterprise innovations that I think are important in that sector such as the WAC attack; that is, Wave, Android, and Chrome with Google Apps along for the joy ride.
The challenge Microsoft has is that emulating Google and learning from Google is not what is needed. The task is to leap frog Google. Google’s core technology is over 11 years old and Microsoft is focusing on that collections of innovations. One cannot shoot a goose (heaven forbid) with a shotgun by aiming directly at the fowl. One must shoot where the goose will be when the pellets arrive to kill the beastie. Microsoft is shooting at the Google, not where the Google is going. The 10 year time line is two Soviet five year plans. Didn’t work in the USSR. Won’t work at MSFT in my opinion.
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