Is the Web Dead? You Are Reading This Post, Right?
August 20, 2010
The Web is dead, or so the famous geek magazine, Wired, recently proclaimed. Fortunately, cooler heads are prevailing. Tech and pop culture hotspot Boing Boing took this ridiculous claim to task in a recent article, “Is the Web Really Dead?”. Using Wired’s comically misguided charts and graphs as evidence of factual negligence, the article pointed out more than one “interesting editorial choice”. In fact, as Boing Boing pointed out in its own hilariously similar charts, the internet is actually getting more popular, stating, “[a]ccording to Cisco, the same source Wired used for its projections, total Internet traffic rose then from about one exabyte to seven exabytes between 2005 and 2010.” An exabyte, of course, is a stack of floppies as big as the fish I caught in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, last week.
We’d like to applaud Boing Boing for showing us that, just because a news source needs a splashy headline, that doesn’t make it fact. Clearly, the confusion of plumbing, information, and methods of access is painful.
Stephen E Arnold, August 20, 2010
Will Enterprises Have an App-etite for Google Apps?
August 20, 2010
Google’s App Engine recently got updated and, like every time they move a muscle, the search giant wants you to think it’s big news. The tweaks are nice, but it’s doubtful many will notice. Information Week briefly outlined the changes in an article, “Google App Engine Gets a Tune-Up.” According to the piece, “foremost among the changes is support for multi-tenant apps. Multi-tenancy means that applications can segregate data for different customers in a unique namespace, using the Namespaces API.” Information Week suggested that this bump in ease of access was actually patterned after Google’s successful photo site, Picasa.
While not earth-shaking news, this change should put the App Engine in a better position to do battle with the gaggle of competition in the cloud application platforms market, including Amazon Web Services, Heroku, Microsoft’s Windows Azure Platform, and Salesforce.com’s Force.com. Multi-tenancy means that the friendliness between Salesforce.com and Google may begin to cool.
Pat Roland, August 20, 2010
Freebie
Solr Glitch Reported
August 19, 2010
Short honk: Solr, the open source search system, has some glitches that the standalone installer is locked into the server, unless you open it up. Besides this, other observations reported in “Standalone Solr 9.0.1 Woes” force to conclude that the Solr installer is not as robust as Verity’s. Good news for Autonomy and a view that will make the open source search community scramble. According to the write up, Solr works fine locally, but issues crop up on a more robust server installation, where Solr gives no indication of connection, and may not report errors. Stay tuned.
Leena Singh, August 19, 2010
Is ISYS Search Software Shifting Its Focus?
August 19, 2010
There are enough economically-fostered partnerships in today’s tempestuous technology market to make Donald Trump salivate. ISYS Search Software may have found a port in the storm. In an article entitled “Sybase Extends Leadership in Advanced Analytics to Customers Around The World” ISYS announced that Sybase has selected ISYS Document Filtering System for use in its IQ text analytics server. The write up said, “ISYS is aggressively addressing needs that are not being served by competitors Oracle and Autonomy.”
So, is ISYS finding the search waters too deep? If so, partnering with Sybase could be a smart move. We’re not sure if this will level the search playing field just yet, we’re going to keep an eye on this interesting development. What’s clear is that search vendors are scrambling to squeeze revenue from a lousy economic turnip. Connector licensing is one interesting angle.
Bret Quinn, August 19, 2010
Freebie
Vivisimo and Its New Positioning
August 19, 2010
I was poking around with Compete.com. Just for fun, I plugged in Endeca.com, dtSearch.com, Mindbreeze.com, and Vivisimo.com. Here’s the chart that Compete.com spit out. I view most usage reports as general indicators, not definitive data. But look at the top trending lines for Endeca and Vivisimo line:
What are these Vivisimo-hicans doing to scalp two competitors and challenge top-rated Endeca.com? The answer, based on my poking around, is that Vivisimo does not talk about search too much, does not use tired search jargon, or trot out search platitudes.
Vivisimo writes a combination of Latinized buzzwords and business school jargon. Here’s an example from the company’s news release “Top 10 Ways the US government Has Used Information Optimization to Save Tax Payers $300 Million.” Whoa, Nellie. In a time of de facto bankruptcy and government waste running amuck, Vivisimo is saving tax payers $300 million.
Here’s what the company says its Velocity Platform is doing:
Vivisimo, a leader in information optimization, today announced the top 10 ways its Information Optimization platform has saved taxpayers $300 million by helping the federal government become more efficient and improve national security. Over the past few years, federal agencies, including federally funded organizations, have saved hundreds of millions of dollars and improved America’s security posture by being able to quickly surf through mountains of information and pull relevant data that will allow federal employees and contractors to perform their job better and faster.
“Information optimization” is an interesting concept. It suggests that “information”–a concept not defined in the write up—can be optimized. “Optimize” to me connotes making a process as effective as possible or taking steps for me to make the most of an action such as my time at the gym. Optimizing information sounds pretty darned good, but I don’t know what it really means.
The news release continued:
Fortunately, Vivisimo’s Information Optimization Platform, provides capabilities that improve information access, re-use and collaboration across the full range of government activities. From internal knowledge portals that enhance agency performance to intelligence analysis, military operations and public-facing websites, Velocity helps government agencies fulfill their missions and deliver value to taxpayers.
Next the company explains that
Information Optimization is the process of finding insights across multiple systems and then delivering the right information to enable better business decisions that solve operating challenges and create economic value. The Velocity Platform helps organizations achieve information optimization through information connectivity and contextual intelligence that then enables organizational capabilities.
“Information” appears in this definition three times, optimization twice, and the notion of “contextual intelligence” (not defined) one time. I recall from my university days something called the “fog index”. My hunch is that this chunk of prose would tally a high fog score. Your mileage may differ.
What’s clear is that Vivisimo is selling its clustering and federated search technology in a quite different way. What’s also clear is that the people looking for information about solving “information problems” are find their way to the Vivisimo Web site. That big read line makes the other outfits’ search engine optimization strategies look less effective that Vivisimo’s interesting new approach.
Is Vivisimo radically different from what it was when it operated Clusty.com (now long gone) and processed content for some of its government clients? In my view, no. What’s different is that the management team is selling to the Federal government using jargon that is second nature to the procurement crowd.
Is there a lesson in this shift? Well, traditional search technology does not deliver the traffic that the Vivisimo jargon seems to deliver. The real test will come when hard financial data becomes available or the company gets acquired. In the meantime, other search vendors may want to study the Vivisimo vocabulary.
Do I know what the Vivisimo lingo means? Does that matter? Not in the world of Web site traffic in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, August 19, 2010
Google in Canada Push
August 19, 2010
The rule of thumb for me was for every US$ 1.00, the Canadian market would yield about $0.25. The reason has more to do with the population of Canada and the dominance of Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. Now don’t get me wrong. I think highly of Calgary (gave a speech there once) and Winnipeg (gave a speech there too). As a result, the marketing and communication challenges have to be well understood and the products tailored to the Canadian market, or more properly, markets. If you don’t know the Manitoba’s principal languages or what the Métis are, you may find yourself “out and about.”
According to Alberta’s Red Deer Advocate, Google is goosing its efforts in a country where my relatives still make life interesting. “Google Canada to Hire More Staff and Build Brand” reported:
Google needs to focus on getting Canadian businesses to turn to the search engine as “one of their top three to five business partners…. Google could provide not only advertising, but business applications like email, Google maps, the Google business channel on YouTube, co-marketing opportunities and product integration.
With 150 employees in Canada, Google will add staff. Will the company prove my rule of thumb wrong? Figure $80,000 Canadian per employee, toss in 25 percent for overhead, and multiple by 150. This means that more than $15 million in revenue is needed to fund the expansion. With government projects often a major source of revenue for certain vendors, the lead time for ramping revenue may be measured in six months or more.
A weakening in Google’s revenues in the US could mean that Google’s sales and marketing tactics for markets such as Canada may get some oomph. The only fly in the ointment is that oomph can have some surprising consequences, particularly Mad Ave inspired American outfits.
Stephen E Arnold, August 19, 2010
Intranet Waste
August 18, 2010
The intranet is a playground of opportunity for companies and employees. Easily shared data and increasing efficiency are just two of the many benefits of a smoothly functioning internal company network. However, according to one report, most of these playgrounds are overgrown with weeds and in need of repair. CMS Wire recently posted a fascinating article on the subject, “The Effective Intranet-Engaging the Employee as Customer.” The piece attempted to make several grand statements about intranets, but its most alarming point was in conjunction with a recent HR Tech News survey from 2009, “Employees Don’t Use Intranet.” These findings claimed that while half of all employees use their intranet, nearly 80% said it needs serious improvements, and we couldn’t agree more. There are many examples of intranets improving after incorporating social media and search technology, making the Intranet more like the Internet. We have a hunch that a meltdown in customer support is tough to avert.
Pat Roland, August 18, 2010
Not Net Neutrality. Maybe Haves and Have Nots?
August 18, 2010
The recent “compromise” between search king Google and wireless company Verizon suggests wireless networks should be exempt from treating all content equally. The Telegraph recently outlined the reactions to this plan in an article, “Google ‘Has Made Few Compromises’ on Net Neutrality.” The piece cited one telecom analyst as saying, “Verizon has made real concessions here…Google, on the other hand, has made few compromises, getting most of what it always said it wanted.” But, what, many are asking, does the search mammoth want? Some say they aim to, “create[s] an Internet for the haves and an Internet for the have-nots.” Others agreed the plan would: “divide the information superhighway, creating new private fast lanes for the big players while leaving the little guy stranded on a winding dirt road.” Is Google up to something or is this just an attempt at the necessary flexibility many corporations need? We don’t know, but it’ll be fun to learn.
Pat Roland, August 18, 2010
Update on Facebook Questions
August 18, 2010
It’s no secret that Google has been aiming to take a bite out of the social media world with programs like Buzz. However, social media kingpin Facebook is fighting back and possibly taking a bite out of Google’s search dominance. Digital Journal outlined this tactic in a recent article, “Facebook Launches Questions Feature.” The gist of the article is that Facebook will soon allow users to ask questions to the community and get answers. Anything from recipes, to historic facts and personal data are up for grabs. According to the piece, “Facebook Questions goes up against some strong players in the ask-a-question-get-an-answer field.” Namely, the king of answer providing: Google. This is going to be a fun war to watch, because Google is not used to losing and Facebook provides a unique spin on Q&A options that its competition can’t touch. Google seems to be a giant looking like the gorilla on top of the Empire State Building.
Pat Roland, August 18, 2010
Graphic of Online Communities Reveals Big Social Media Shifts
August 18, 2010
Since the introduction of the first online social media sites the industry has grown immensely. XKCD using a map illustrated the relative size of the various online communities in 2007 but just a mere three years later Flowtown released an updated version of the map as shown in “Map of Online Communities Reveals Staggering Social Media Shifts (Pictures).” According to the 2007 map MySpace was the dominant social media site with Facebook pictured as one of the smaller ones. Flowtown created a network map “that reflects current trends in 2010.” The results were substantially different and show Facebook, which boasts about 500 million members, as the dominant social site. The old giant MySpace experienced a decrease in membership as well as social media power. With so many options and members it can make searching through the sites an endless task. In just a few years the social media world has done a 360.
April Holmes, August 18, 2010
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