Search and Job Security

September 10, 2011

I was able to snag an Internet connection, navigate the convoluted world of air line reservations, and catch up on the job security in search. Set aside the Carol Bartz fancy dance at Yahoo. As the Wordstar of findability, I stopped monitoring Yahoo years ago. What did catch my attention was “The Microsoft Revolving Door: Former Powerset CEO Has Left the Building.” Barney Pell, who sold a natural language processing system to Microsoft for about $100 million, is no longer at Microsoft. Set aside the oddities of buying Fast Search (a fascinating technical exercise for $1.2 billion), Microsoft felt that it needed more search technology at about the same time: 2008. Where’s Powerset now? Well, I am not sure. Where’s Mr. Pell? He in “full time angel investor and parallel entrepreneur” land.

Several observations:

First, anyone looking for a CEO with a track record in search, there is a fatter pool than when I hightailed it to the land of cabbage and beets

Second, CEOs of search and content processing companies will definitely want a Plan B. Career shifts seem to be part of the landscape.

Third, at what point will someone recognize that search is difficult, expensive, and very different from what the carnival barkers, the “real” consultants, and the former English majors think it is.

Just a thought from six time zones from the mine drainage filled pond in rural Kentucky.

Stephen E Arnold, September 10, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.