Report Finds Google+ Lacking User Engagement
May 23, 2012
Business Week recently reported on Google’s social media arm in the article “Is Google+ a Ghost Town, and Does It Matter?”
According to the article, RJ Metrics found that, after surveying 40,000 of the 170 million people with Google+ profiles, user activity is rapidly on the decline. Unlike other social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, Google+ has an extremely low rate of reposting (15% to be exact) and the average time lapse between posts is 12 days.
Google denies these allegations and states the findings to be inaccurate, but fails to provide its own data on user engagement. The search giant does say that people are two to three times more likely to share content in their private circles than to make posts public.
The article states:
“Robert Moore of RJMetrics acknowledges that the study is skewed by the lack of private data, but points out that his findings echo a ComScore (SCOR) study released in February, which showed that Google+ users spent only about 3 minutes per month on the social networking site in January, compared with 7.5 hours on Facebook.”
While we can certain of the accuracy of this data, based on my own personal experience with Google+ it paints a pretty accurate picture. This study certain reminds readers that Google sits alone at lunch.
Jasmine Ashton, May 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Experian Hitwise Reveals Facebook Search Traffic Statistics
May 23, 2012
There seems be a lot of talk these days pitting Google+ and Facebook against one another. There are a variety of different factors that come into play when comparing the two Internet giants. Search traffic is one of them.
It may be overhyped but based on a new batch of stats just released, Facebook has been getting some traffic that is worth noting. According to a recent CNET News report, “Facebook.com Received 9% of All U.S Internet Visits in April.”
According to the data collected by Experian Hitwise, despite its somewhat controversial business model, Facebook is not hurting for search traffic one bit. In fact, the Internet tycoon received more than 400 million page views this year and 229 visits a day with an average visit time of 20 minutes.
The article states:
“10 states account for 52 percent of visits to Facebook.com — California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina based on year-to-date average. The top states where users are more likely to visit Facebook.com versus the online population are: West Virginia, Kentucky, Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Alabama based on year-to-date average.”
It looks like Facebook is going to be around for a while, so settle in and get comfy Google+.
Jasmine Ashton, May 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Autonomy and Tampa Bay Times Tie Up
May 23, 2012
Times are changing in the newspaper industry and Tampa Bay Times is embracing Autonomy’s web content management in order to maintain their lead position. The article The Tampa Bay Times Turns To Autonomy To Power Online Presence gives a preview on how this Pulitzer Prize winning paper plans to enhance their digital media coverage.
According to Joe DeLuca, publisher of tampabay.com and Tampa publisher of the Times;
“The publishing industry is going through a period of profound change. We understand that to continue to lead in the digital age, we need to deliver news and information to the public in a helpful, innovative and engaging manner. Autonomy will play a central role in our process of re-imagining the entire look and feel of our web presence, and the technology provides the ideal platform to help us evolve and expand.”
CEO of Autonomy Promote, Rafiq Mohammadi proudly announced;
“The Tampa Bay Times continues to extend its lead as Florida’s largest newspaper and one of the most well-known media brands in the Southeast U.S. by pioneering new ways to lead in the digital age.”
The Tampa Bay Times has been counted among the top 10 newspapers in the U.S. with good reason. Choosing to integrate Autonomy’s web technology into their existing system should guarantee their position stays firmly in place. Tampa Bay made a wise decision by tying it up with Autonomy.
Jennifer Shockley, May 23, 2012
The Challenges for Microsoft SharePoint Integrators
May 22, 2012
I don’t care too much about outfits who surf on other company’s software. Been there. Done that. In my experience with Infozen, an outfit with which I was affiliated during the wild and crazy “index the Federal government” years, I learned:
- Integrators and resellers take advantage of clients who lack the expertise, time, and management acumen to get a job done in a cost effective manner during normal work hours
- Partners, integrators and resellers sell what generates money. Investing in research and development is a PowerPoint or Keynote slide, not a business practice. Clients pay for the resellers and integrators to solve a problem. If the solution works, the integrator or reseller will resell the solution, emphasizing that it is an invention.
- Integrators and resellers are trying to avoid the “pay to play” model enforced by a number of software giants. A good way to determine if the outfit requires integrators or resellers to pony6 up hard cash for the privilege of selling enterprise software is too look for print advertising in various trade publications.
- Integrators and resellers use a tie up as an occasion for a news release. A good example is the “Oracle Endeca Getting Started Partner Guide.”
At a recent briefing I gave in New York, I had an occasion to talk to a very energetic investment type. I picked up three signals about the Microsoft SharePoint reseller and partner ecosystem. Like most information floating around after 6 pm in Manhattan, I suspect there is mostly baloney in the observations. But I wanted to snag them before they slipped from my flawed short term memory bank:
First, it seems that Microsoft is not putting much wood behind Fast Search & Transfer technology. I believe the phrase the MBA squirrel used was “end of life.” If true, the $1.2 billion and messy Fast situation may be in the midst of a rethink. What will Microsoft do? With the juicy search companies gobbled up, Microsoft may have to pull some rabbits out of its many hats. Open source, non US search and content processing vendors, making a cake from its own search ingredients, leveraging Powerset and other technologies?
Second, some Microsoft partners are starting to “go off the reservation.” In the free blog, I do not want to mention names. I learned that one prominent Microsoft Certified Partner had quietly embraced non Microsoft technologies. The “quietly” suggests to me that Microsoft could choke off a flow of sales leads if the shift caused big waves. The reason to “go off the reservation” boiled down to the sense that some Microsoft centric shops were starting to demonstrate “fee fatigue.” What do resellers do when revenue from Old Faithful slows, resellers and integrators look for what will sell.
Third, after decades of having a sure-fire business model, some partners and integrators see that alternatives exist and may be worth exploring. Examples include cloud alternatives to on premises Microsoft solutions or – hang on to your hat – open source solutions.
The impact of the lousy financial climate is taking a toll on some Microsoft centric vendors. The toll will be more burdensome going forward. In short, integrators and resellers are in play.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by Polyspot
Building a SharePoint Farm
May 22, 2012
Continuing our coverage of the SharePoint series by Robert Schifreen, we turn our attention to, “Building the Farm: From learning to Testing,” on ZD Net UK Edition. (See our coverage of Robert’s first installation in the series, “SharePoint Deployment: Pitfalls of a Pioneer.”) In this piece, Schifreen discusses the details and hardships of starting the actual SharePoint farm.
You’ll need servers set up, SAN storage provisioned, new domain accounts created, DNS entries adding, access to your Active Directory database, firewall holes punching, server licences purchasing, Active Directory security groups creating, installation DVDs downloading, workstations being put into domains for testing, access to VM management consoles granting, servers adding into the load balancer pools, IP addresses allocating, users’ home drives re-mapping, SSL certificates applying for, login scripts amending, and more.
All of the necessities listed above are quite overwhelming. Schifreen goes on to mention the value of expert advice, including paying for outside consulting. For many organizations, expert advice is a sound investment. However, we have another suggestion.
Among the leaders in third-party enterprise solutions is Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise. Mindbreeze can work alongside an existing SharePoint installation, or as a standalone solution. Implementing any new infrastructure will take planning, but a smart third-party solution has built-in customization options, making it a much smoother and intuitive process than trying to get SharePoint to the point of viability.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or to be more precise, understands what the most important information is for you at any precise moment in time. It is the center of excellence for your knowledge and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud data together.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze also offers a suite of complimentary solutions to link together all aspects of an organization’s information management: mobile solutions, cloud, email management, web site search, etc. While SharePoint is capable of these auxiliary features, too much time and attention has to be devoted to customization.
So if your organization is looking for an effective but less painful way to manage information storage and retrieval needs, consider the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Siemens Invests in Tomorrow’s Manufacturers
May 22, 2012
The manufacturing industry has relied largely on labor to function. As technology grows more complex and the average age of the American manufacturer creeps higher a new breed of worker must be developed and trained. In an effort to train the next generation of manufacturing laborers in emerging technology Siemens has begun partnering with community colleges for training as discussed in the Bloomberg article, “Siemens PLM Software Launches New Community College Best Practice Program to Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing”.
The article describes the partnership by saying,
“The program, developed in conjunction with Iowa Western Community College (IWCC), provides resources to interested community colleges and local manufacturers including a recommended associate’s degree curriculum, a guide for obtaining in-kind software grants to provide the technology needed for implementation, and a detailed white paper, titled Community Colleges Revitalize manufacturing, outlining the process for building a successful academic, government and business partnership for the program’s execution.”
The idea behind such training is that as technology becomes more refined so must the laborers using it. Siemens, known for their product lifecycle management solutions, understands the value of highly-trained workers. Their teaming up with community colleges is a great investment in tomorrow’s workforce. PLM solutions are being adopted across all industries, not just manufacturing, as an efficient way to reduce costs and streamline processes.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 22, 2012
Facebook Explains Data Policies
May 22, 2012
Ah, Facebook and its content treasure trove. The New York Times reports, “Facebook Shares More About How It Uses Your Data.” The social behemoth has added new explanations about its content and privacy policies to the site’s Help tab.
Writer Somini Sengupta infers that the new disclosures may be in response to questions from certain European college students and the Irish Data Protection Office (which regulates Facebook’s European data policies.) Perhaps, but it seems to us that the clamor for transparency from Facebook began long ago. More likely, the timing has something to do with Facebook’s comparatively new Director of Privacy, Erin Egan. Ms. Egan was previously a partner and co-chair of the global privacy and data security division at a respected international law firm based in Washington, DC.
The write up informs us:
“The new explanations, available by clicking on the Help tab on the bottom of the Facebook home page, include one on how cookies work on the site and what information application developers receive when you download an app on the Facebook platform. The explanations also inform users about who can see what kinds of posts on their timelines.”
“‘We also provide more information about how we use data to operate Facebook, to advertise, and to promote safety and security for Facebook users,’ Ms. Egan wrote.”
Could the timing of these explanations, and the creation of the Director of Privacy position itself, have anything to do with Facebook going public? The company must now balance the specter of public scrutiny with its obligation to plump up profits for shareholders. Good luck with that.
Cynthia Murrell, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Google Progresses on Semantic Search
May 22, 2012
The keyword-free Web search may be on the horizon. Search Engine Journal reports on the progress in “Google Testing Semantic Search Update.” Though Google has said a full-fledged semantic Web search is several years away, the company seems to be trying out some changes.
Writer David Angotti describes Google’s plan:
“A team of software engineers has been working to develop mathematical formulas that will extract and organize data that is currently spread across the Internet. The combination of an acquisition and the extraction algorithms have provided Google with an index of over 200 million people, places, and things, which Google simply calls ‘entities.’ This index, which Google named the Knowledge Graph, will allow Google to move away from keyword-based results to true semantic search.
“Once the entities are properly organized, semantic search technology enables Google to measure the relationship and separation between two entities to determine search results and rankings.”
Angotti notices that Google seems to be testing some of this functionality. His example is the query, “who directed The Hunger Games.” The results successfully placed the correct answer (Gary Ross) at the top of the list, and for some users included related images down the right side where ads usually appear.
When asked, a Google spokesperson had no information to share. More changes, though, are expected to arrive soon. We wonder– how will these revisions affect the rankings of millions of sites? Are keyword-reliant SEO pros anxious yet?
Cynthia Murrell, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Search Genius for Scientists with SharePoint.
May 22, 2012
Sys-Con Media reports, “PerkinElmer Unveils Search Genius software for Use with Microsoft SharePoint Framework.” The system, designed for researchers, unifies searching, saving, and sharing of unstructured data in one application. We learned from the write up:
“The Search Genius platform is a powerful search application that enables researchers to use both text and structure searches of reports and technical documents stored using the SharePoint framework and [PerkinElmer’s own] E-Notebook system, as well as text searches of the Internet. With the Search Genius platform, researchers can more readily gain broader access to previously difficult-to-access data. This enables greater and more holistic visibility to organization-wide information resources that researchers can then more easily leverage into new and existing projects. Scientists can also save their search results and easily create links and annotations that document their ideas and facilitate collaboration.”
Health care information technology is in the Stone Age. Will this crack the problem of fragmented medical information?
A longstanding leader in the science community, PerkinElmer turns 75 this year. The company is based in Waltham, MA, but has operations around the globe. Their mission statement: “Improving the health and safety of people and the environment.” Let us hope Search Genius is up to the task.
Cynthia Murrell, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Scoop: Is It a Surprise That Google and Microsoft Target Amazon?
May 22, 2012
Okay, “real” journalists are causing my blood pressure medicine to work overtime. I did not know that Amazon was a big deal. I am delighted that a major “real” news outfit reported for the first time in the history of mankind this insight: “Scoop: Google, Microsoft Both Targeting Amazon with New Clouds.” The insight which knocked me on my tail feathers was:
Google and Microsoft are two cloud providers that should have Amazon Web Services shaking a bit, in a way Rackspace and the OpenStack haven’t yet been able to. Google and Microsoft both have the engineering chops to compete with AWS technically, and both have lots of experience dealing with both developers and large companies. More importantly, both seem willing and able to compete with AWS on price — a big advantage for AWS right now as its economies of scale allow it to regularly slash prices for its cloud computing services.
Even though we have provided some insight to our hopeless befuddled investment bank clients, we totally missed the fact that Amazon had a cloud service, that Google and Microsoft seem to be playing a me too game, and that Amazon is rolling out new services.
How could the goslings have failed me? We thought Amazon was really a purveyor of hard backed books and diapers? I expect that the financial outfits who pay us to analyze the more subtle aspects of companies engaged in online will be firing us in the next minute or two. Now I know my IQ is below 70, not even “dull normal.”
I suppose I can become a WalMart greeter.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by no one. I mean who would pay money to an outfit who did not know that Google and Microsoft were interested in cloud revenue.
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