Google and Its Content Hoover
September 7, 2010
Nothing works better than money when one wants to grease the content skids. Financial details are tough to get and then difficult to verify. In today’s content Jacuzzi, one pays to play. Two examples:
“YouTube Seals Its Biggest Premium Sports Deal Yet”. Google has found a way to make major league baseball find love and affection for distribution of baseball games in a handful of countries. If this generates clicks, I think the Google will extend the deal. Why would the major league play ball? My hunch: money.
“Google, AP Strike New Deal On Web Licensing Rights”. Google and the Associated Press seem to have found common ground. My hunch is that money makes the dominance of Google palatable.
So what?
First, these deals may be precursors of more high value content tie ups. A big pile of content means that lots of users will visit Google. Good for Google, reasonably good for its partners, and possibly lousy news for other distributors.
Second, once Google users get out of high school, those viewing habits may be tough to change. Google has time on its side and content creators with some old school love do not have time.
Third, other vendors who want to compete with Google will either have to pony up or watch the Google start thinking exclusive. Yikes.
Stephen E Arnold, September 7, 2010
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Another Thrust at Lexis and Westlaw
September 7, 2010
A thrust is not a akinakes in the liver, but “Bootstrapping Band of Brothers Raise $30M for People Search Engine Inflection” is more than shaking a finger at Lexis and Westlaw. The article describes two brothers who want to provide legal eagles with for fee services. Among those planned are for fee searching of public records. Others range from feet on the street who dash around delivering documents necessary for legal matters to for fee searching. The Lexis and Westlaw duo face a number of challenges. The legal profession is faced with clients who won’t spend at pre-crash levels. Junior attorneys are losing their jobs or getting partial pay and vacation days. Recent graduates are filing claims against the law schools that recruited them and painted a glorious picture of the job market for graduates. What this means is that Lexis and Westlaw have to find a way to generate growth and deal with upstarts with $30 million. Google’s approach had promise but like many Math Club ideas, execution has been less scintillating than the ideation process. Government entities continue to crank out content with more and more becoming available online. Will Inflection become the next big thing? The idea seems interesting, but I think it is likely that Lexis or Westlaw will just buy the outfit. That approach may be easier than revamping the dinosaur-like business models that worked when lawyers were flying high. Now eagles have landed, just in a run down area outside of Piscataway. In the parking lot are the Inflection folks, and they are armed and dangerous.
Stephen E Arnold, September 7, 2010
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Facebooky Curated Search
September 7, 2010
I read “Facebook Now Displaying All Liked News Articles In Search Results.”
So here is the cost equation.
Indexing every wacky thing a spider can reach. Or why not index just the stuff that members click on or flag as Facebooky? Improve relevance and get out of the 1998 mentality toward search. In my opinion, the Googley approach is way expensive. The Facebooky approach is cheaper and probably better. The Facebook method may not emulate the wild and crazy CNN approach to news but Facebook humans are doing some heavy lifting. Facebook suck in what rings the Facebook members’ chimes. The result is Facebooky Curated Search or FCS. Add a consonant and a vowel and FCS becomes a serious stick in the eye for the Google.
Toss in the Facebook targeted ad and something interesting begins to take form.
Yep, I know the azurini see Facebook as a lower form of digital life. Yep, I know the SEO English majors can’t understand why anyone would search Facebook for news. It’s not search, right? Wrong. FCS may be a harbinger (sorry, big word, gentle reader) of a larger threat to finding information.
Why search?
There may be a Facebook app for that. Then what? A horror to awful to contemplate. Google’s traditional search becomes less vital to the Facebook set. Now of what does FCS remind me? Oh, I have an idea: Facebook crushes search. You thought something else?
Stephen E Arnold, September 7, 2010
Google Cries Over Spilled Milk
September 7, 2010
Google has accused the State government of favoring Microsoft. This is a recent news revelation on webpronews.com’s “Google Cries Foul Over California Email Contract” citing Google’s inability to win over the $60 million contract, which has gone to CompuCom Systems, an IT outsourcing company with ties to Microsoft.
Even though Google is based in California, the City of Los Angeles and the Government are adopting Google Apps, but Google failed to clinch the opportunity to get a foothold in the government IT space. The Internet giant openly accuses California Governor’s office of rigging the bidding system, however the article quotes the LA Times reporter duo as saying, “Google spent months trying to complete in the contract bidding process but never formally joined the race because state officials drew up a lengthy list of requirements the company said were impossible for it to meet.”
One can only say that it is imperative to get the details correct, and not be careless. Government procurements follow some specific rules. Following those rules is usually a prudent measure. Then there are methods for redress. Most of these rules and redress procedures are not the stuff of news stories. But maybe times have changed since the goose sought the placid pond far from the red tape machines.
Leena Singh, September 7, 2010
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Jetwick Twitter Search
September 6, 2010
Peter Karich on DZone “Twitter Search Jetwick – Powered by Wicket and Solr,” where he narrates his experiences with creation of ‘Jetwick’ provides some insight into the steps required to create a Twitter search. He noted, “From a quick-start project to production many if not all things can change.”
The article recounts the task to create a similar-user finding service ‘Jetwick’ on Twitter based on their tweeted content, whose prototype was created only within a week. It needed some extra tweaking and switching to Solr for facets, which was done in a couple of hours. However, user trials highlighted need of changes in the layout that was achieved by switching to another web UI, taking a couple of days. Then, the rectification process of a problem with Db4 took about a week, finally needing to switch to Hibernate that took another couple of weeks. However, as Twitter released a similar service, the base concept of Jetwick had to be changed from user-search to a regular tweet search. The final production changed considerably. We found this a useful case example.
Leena Singh, September 6, 2010
Going Beyond Google for Searches
September 6, 2010
There are search engines specially tailored to provide specific information. We found an IBNlive photo gallery displaying “Top 10 search Engines beyond Google” that may not be compelling replacements for Google, but are quite interesting.
You may have heard about Answers.com, one of the most reliable Q&A websites, or Healthbase.com that delivers results for health-related queries. There are more innovative search engines like WolframAlpha.com, that makes all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone, or the fashion search engine EMPORA.com bringing together thousands of stores and brands. You can search your music on Guruji.com, and track major Bit Torrent websites on isoHunt.com. GazoPa performs remarkable ‘similar image search’, where you can draw instead of typing the words, and Pipl.com provides the most comprehensive people search on the web. Yummly.com is fascinating for people who love to cook and search for recipes, and Like.com boasts of being the “first true visual image search” platform, now acquired by Google.
Leena Singh, September 6, 2010
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Groklaw Oracle Post Highlights a Battle Royal
September 6, 2010
Thump. Thump. Thump. That’s the sound of the legal eagles marshaled for an aerial assault on the Googleplex.
The case of Oracle America vs. Google is not going away and becoming a TruTV reality show preview for the IT industry. First off, Oracle has renamed Sun Microsystems as Oracle America. Now, Oracle America is alleging infringement on their patents by Google. The case is dissected in groklaw.net’s article titled “Oracle America’s Complaint Against Google, As Text.” The text of the Oracle complaint against Google can be found here. The article summarizes that the plaintiff, Sun/Oracle America, is filing suit for patent and copyright infringement of Oracle’s properties, which include Sun’s Java platform. The article says that the language of the complaint is “strong” and “it’s language that indicates Oracle is going for treble damages” and it also means they “likely have something quite fact-based and specific in mind that they think can be pinned on Google.”
Now, that’s an understatement. Google hired away some Oracle Java engineers so you can bet your bottom dollar Google had knowledge of Java. Interestingly, the article also quotes Java creator James Gosling as saying that Oracle’s lawsuit was filed “only after the failure of protracted technology licensing negotiations with Google that began long before Sun sold itself to Oracle…”
The series begins this fall. Live. 3D. Available on a mobile device running Java or a clean room version thereof.
Stephen E Arnold, September 6, 2010
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Lucene/Solr Unbalances the Enterprise Search Apple Cart
September 6, 2010
Stephen E Arnold conducted a third interview with David Fishman, Lucid Imagination’s vice president of marketing. In this 10 minute discussion, the topic was the disruptive nature of Lucene/Solr open source search software. In the podcast, Mr. Fishman pinpoints the factors that are likely to have a significant impact on some vendors of proprietary software. You can listen to the podcast by navigating to ArnoldIT.com and clicking on the Lucid Podcast 3 link. If you want to learn more about Lucid Imagination, navigate to the firm’s Web site. The Lucene Revolution Conference will be held in about five weeks. The conference is nearly sold out, so act quickly to reserve your space for the Boston event on October 7th and 8th. More information is available at www.lucenerevolution.com.
Stuart Schram IV, September 6, 2010
Context Search: The New Hot Thing?
September 6, 2010
Traditionally there is a search box, which accepts the submission of a query, and subsequently presents a set of results to a user. Now the search box is not enough. The recent eyefortravel.com news article “Understanding How Search Is Moving beyond the Traditional Search Box” reveals how comScore intends to use “Explicit Core Search,” helping users “to completely change or refine their search directly from the result page.”
The concept relates to “the context of the browsing experience as the user engages with non-search content.” Therefore, the search engines are now designed to weave into the user experience, and provide “contextual searches.” This search is used as a powerful contextual content discovery technology, enabling search engines to provide intuitive and convenient content discovery experiences. As per the news, “by providing search results on context across their network, those sites are able to leverage the size of their audience to expose more users to their search services,” thus experiencing the future of search.
Sounds like beyond search to us.
Leena Singh, September 6, 2010
News Flash from Former Microsoft Executive
September 5, 2010
Short honk: Point your browser thingy at “VMware’s Paul Maritz, an Ex-Top Microsoft Exec, Says Windows No Longer Center of Innovation.” No kidding. The article is in the title. How did I learn that MSFT was not an innovator? I was reading the story on my iPad. Enough said.
Stephen E Arnold, September 5, 2010
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