IBM, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Pressure
May 18, 2010
I find the antics of a $100 billion company quite amusing. For example, IBM is jumping from business to business without getting its Web site in synch. Need search engine optimization? IBM is there for you? Need a mainframe in Africa? You know whom to call. Need a wheelbarrow full of software Lego blocks? Just email your local IBM rep.
What is shaping up to be an interesting market battle is IBM and “business intelligence.” IBM has considerable home grown technology. Are you familiar with Web Fountain? Thought not. IBM owns Cognos, which provides business intelligence solutions to big companies. Like the aging business intelligence systems, licensees need to have a wizard or two on premises to make sure that reports work with valid data. What happens if you have lousy data and a complex coding problem, the outputs can be—ah, shall we say—misleading.
To add spice to the IBM business intelligence line up, IBM bought SPSS. If you took advanced statistics, chances are you dipped your nose into the methods of “real” quantitative analysis. If you are a text processing maven, you know that SPSS bought some text analytics and processing technology from Leximancer.
IBM is throwing its weight around. Image Source: http://tinapaparone.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/big-guy-vs-little-guy-299×300.png
Why is this important? For me, these items provide some background for the story “We Are Going 20 percent Cheaper than Oracle.” Among the points in the write up (actually an interview with Edward B Orange, VP-Information Management and Business Analytics, Software Group, Asia Pacific, IBM) were:
- IBM has spent $12 billion in “business analytics”. The money? Buying companies.
- IBM is selling a business analytics appliance called IBM Smart Analytics Systems.
- Parts get an “extra commission” when DB2 is slammed into the solution sale.
- IBM is hip to social networking analytics. I did not know this.
- IBM has another $3 to $5 billion for additional business intelligence acquisitions.
Slang Who
May 18, 2010
“Slang Who Search Engine Set to Release on May 14” quotes the marketing campaign of the new search engine as saying “It’s a 50-50 chance of the information being truthful. I don’t think I trust it.” Will this new social search engine find exactly what we’re all looking for: the proper search result? Slang Who claims the “secret algorithms” of search giants like Google or Yahoo! aren’t trustworthy and instead relies on “what users feel are the best websites.” Do you trust the users of the internet? I don’t. The project was started by the minds behind Roomster.com, a search engine for apartments and sublets, and debuts on Friday. While the technique is important – Facebook has announced search plugins as well – Slang Who needs more than a silly name and “what users feel” to get it right.
Samuel Hartman, May 18, 2010
Note: Post not sponsored.
Faveeo Turns Real Time Chatter Into Useful Info
May 18, 2010
Faveeo, a new semantic-based search app, aims to gather the incredible amount of data floating around on the internet and filter it into something useful. Their demo video shows a mash-up of a “Google” tag and “smartphone” tag, instantly yielding articles on the left and a live Twitter feed on the right. Clicking on an article about the Android phone updates the Twitter feed to include this tag and allows selections between tweets about Google, smartphones, the Android, or any combination of the three. While Faveeo currently focuses on Twitter, it’s currently still in beta and could easily grab tags from Facebook, YouTube, and other social networks in the future. Interested users can get an invite to try it out via the site.
Samuel Hartman, May 18, 2010
Note: Post not sponsored.
Quote to Note: Pre I/O YouTube Prognostication
May 17, 2010
Rumors abound. Free Android pads, country specific TV services, deals for Google TVs with Intel and Sony. Wow. What is true and what is not? Got me. I will be working on my humble monograph about Google Beyond Text. Fortunately or unfortunately, my research chugs along outside the heat of the PR supernova. In “YouTube Hits 2 Billion Views per Day” there is an interesting comment, an alleged quotation. Here it is:
“This is only the beginning of the video revolution. We’re just getting started,” YouTube stated.
Maybe, maybe not. There is Viacom, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and lots of legal eagles who may try to pull the ignition wires.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2010
Freebie.
First U.S. Open Source Search Conference
May 17, 2010
The first-ever conference focused on addressing the business and development aspects of open source search will take place October 7-8, 2010 at the Hyatt Harborside in Boston.
Dubbed Lucene Revolution due to the sponsor, Lucid Imagination, the commercial company dedicated to Apache Lucene technology. This inaugural event promises a full, forward-thinking agenda, creating opportunities for developers, technologists and business leaders to explore the benefits that open source enterprise search makes possible.
In addition to in-depth training provided by Lucid Imagination professionals, there will be two days of content rich talks and presentations by Lucene and Solr open source experts. Working on the program will be Stephen E. Arnold, author and consultant.
Those interested in learning more about the conference and submitting a proposal for a talk can navigate to http://lucenerevolution.com/. The deadline for submissions is June 23, 2010. Individuals are encouraged to submit proposals for papers and talks that focus on categories including enterprise case studies, cloud-based deployment of Lucene/Solr, large-scale search, and data integration.
The Lucene Revolution conference comes just after success of sold-out Apache Lucene EuroCon 2010 in Prague, also sponsored by Lucid Imagination, the single largest gathering of open source search developers to date.
Melody K. Smith, May 16, 2010
Note: ArnoldIT.com paid me to write this.
Sharper Than the Tooth of a Serpent, A Xoogler Analysis of Google
May 17, 2010
Read the original to get the full scoop: “Will Facebook Be Tomorrow’s Google, and Google Tomorrow’s Microsoft?” This is an old premise for me, but there were several points in the write up that a nails into Googzilla’s tail. Here are the weaknesses of Google identified by a former Google professional:
- As smart as the math club is, the math club struggles to understand brand advertising
- Google gets a C in products
- Google does baby steps, not big jumps
There are other weaknesses as well, but this summary by a Xoogler is a rare moment of candor.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
Freebie.
Cutting Edge Privacy: Facebook and Google
May 17, 2010
What’s going on? The Europeans take umbrage at Google’s alleged collection of personal data whilst Wi-Fi sniffing. Read about the latest Math Club folly in “Google Data Admission Angers Europe.” Now flip to “Can You Quit Facebook?” These two outfits seem to be doing pretty much what they want and then scurrying in different directions to make their behavior somewhat PR-friendly.
In my opinion, the fact that both companies are acting in their own interests is standard operating procedure. The more interesting question is, “Which company is likely to emerge as the victor?”
I found “Ignore The Screams–Facebook’s Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World” edging toward Facebook’s side of the field. Here’s the passage I found thought provoking:
From a business perspective, in other words, Facebook’s approach to innovation is smart. It’s not always popular, but it works. And if Facebook wants to maintain its competitive edge, it will do what it has to do to smooth over the latest blow-up, and then go forth with the same approach and attitude it has had all along. Step back and think about what Facebook is doing here. It is pioneering an entirely new kind of service, one that most of its users have never seen before, one with no established practices or rules. It is innovating in an area–the fine line between public and private–that has always freaked people out. It is allowing people to communicate and share information in ways they never have before. It is making decisions that affect hundreds of millions of people. And it is trying to stay a step ahead of competitors that would like nothing better than to see it get scared and conservative and thus leave itself open to getting knocked off.
Google’s methods are, if the above analysis is accurate, old school. Facebook is new school. What happens when one old fashioned Soviet leader is replaced with an adjutant to a former Soviet leader? Old methods in a slightly updated package? I do not have an answer, but I think the Facebook frivolity requires close, close observation. It is new in a number of ways.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
Freebie
Finding Books
May 17, 2010
You can’t live on good ideas alone and Booshaka may find out the hard way. A recent Killer Startup review, “Booshaka – A Search Engine for Facebook,” details how this social search engine provides excellent tools for users. Booshaka functions like web-based search engines, but only shows Facebook postings. Users can type in a topic to search, click the most popular search topics or choose one of the “fun” topic listings. The results look just like Facebook wall postings, but from all different people. The problem is, there is now “Wow” factor. Nothing about this program made us sit up straight and say, I wish I’d thought of that. While Booshaka provides something helpful and unique, it reminds us that if you aren’t spinning heads, you’re spinning your wheels. Maybe the mud tires will get a grip? We hope so.
Patrick Roland, May 17, 2010
Freebie.
Social Networking, Like a Red, Red Rose
May 17, 2010
In the 9th grade, an English teacher jumped all over me for pointing out that Robert Burns’s poem with the memorable line “my love is like a red, red rose” was about a sailor in port. Anyone who has spent a weekend in San Diego when the fleet is in knows that a sailor’s love last about as long as a red, red rose. Not Ms. Sperling. She did not agree. I am not sure if I buy into the argument in “Social Networking Is Losing Direction, Pioneer Bill Liao Says.” Unlike my English teacher, I am going to take a “wait and see” approach. The premise is that social networking is no longer focused on “core values”. I am not sure what this phrase means, but I know that Facebook’s big wheels are trying to figure out “privacy.” We know that the Google Buzz service wandered into a swamp. Lots of people are waving flags and shouting that social networks have some lightning bolts within their cloud touched surfaces. For me the key passage was:
Liao [social networking pioneer at Xing] believes that today’s leading social networking giants are obsessed with subscriber numbers and care less about values. This, he warns, could be their Achilles heel. He also believes social networking sites are still too complicated for users to feel entirely comfortable and safe with. “I think the idea that there are special users that you somehow own is going to be obsolete very quickly. If you look at the number of mobile phones on the planet and the sophistication of the mobile phones people have, the need to go to a specific website to get some of the stuff done, that whole interface is likely to become obsolete quickly.
I see some meat in this assertion. I also noted this passage:
In order to achieve re-forestation people need to be empowered, in order to be empowered people need to be able to make declarations about what they’re doing. Go to Neo.org and you’ll see its about personal empowerment. We really have to give up nationalism as the petty little game that it is. It’s stupid and is no longer serving people.”
Hmm.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
Freebie.
YourOpenBook: Hurry
May 16, 2010
Short honk: A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to a Facebook centric “finding” service. If you have some Facebook skeletons in your closet, you may want to gobble a Rennie before navigating to YourOpenBook. I ran some interesting queries but the goose will not reproduce those results. Fascinating body of content and a basic search engine. Powerful and thought provoking. Know your child’s Facebook name? Azure chip consultant under 30? Coworker? Enjoy before the service suffers an unexpected outage. Note: queries are now returning different results with each refresh.
Stephen E Arnold, May 16, 2010
Freebie.
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