The Teflon Coated Google
January 17, 2013
For eighteen months, the Federal Trade Commission investigated Google to see if it was using its corner on the Internet search market to push its own products and services at the expense of its rivals. The Wall Street Journal reports in “Behind Google’s Antitrust Escape” that the FTC decided not to purse an antitrust suit, instead they opted for a series of smaller issues. Google agreed to make some changes in its search business. The FTC could not find any evidence that Google’s customers as well as its rivals were being harmed. All the FTC discovered were customers’ complaints about Google’s actions, which were not enough to make a case.
During the investigation, Google was setting itself up against the antitrust violation:
“Google also dispatched executive chairman Eric Schmidt and other employees to garner support from lawmakers, adding political pressure to the landscape. In November, for instance, staff members of U.S. Senator Mark Udall, a Democrat from Colorado, spoke with Google representatives. Afterward, Mr. Udall sent a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, encouraging the agency to proceed “cautiously” in its probes of Internet companies, which “have some of the highest consumer satisfaction rates in the country” and have created millions of jobs.”
Udall’s letter was only one of several letters that Congress members sent to the FTC. Many of these letters were leaked and Congress was concerned about information leaking. It was even suggested that the FTC leaked the info for strategic advantage. Whatever the truth is, Google got off with a slap on the hand and will continue on with its search dominance.
Whitney Grace, January 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Teflon Coated Google
January 17, 2013
For eighteen months, the Federal Trade Commission investigated Google to see if it was using its corner on the Internet search market to push its own products and services at the expense of its rivals. The Wall Street Journal reports in “Behind Google’s Antitrust Escape” that the FTC decided not to purse an antitrust suit, instead they opted for a series of smaller issues. Google agreed to make some changes in its search business. The FTC could not find any evidence that Google’s customers as well as its rivals were being harmed. All the FTC discovered were customers’ complaints about Google’s actions, which were not enough to make a case.
During the investigation, Google was setting itself up against the antitrust violation:
“Google also dispatched executive chairman Eric Schmidt and other employees to garner support from lawmakers, adding political pressure to the landscape. In November, for instance, staff members of U.S. Senator Mark Udall, a Democrat from Colorado, spoke with Google representatives. Afterward, Mr. Udall sent a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, encouraging the agency to proceed “cautiously” in its probes of Internet companies, which “have some of the highest consumer satisfaction rates in the country” and have created millions of jobs.”
Udall’s letter was only one of several letters that Congress members sent to the FTC. Many of these letters were leaked and Congress was concerned about information leaking. It was even suggested that the FTC leaked the info for strategic advantage. Whatever the truth is, Google got off with a slap on the hand and will continue on with its search dominance.
Whitney Grace, January 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Facebook Search: How Disruptive?
January 16, 2013
Lots of punditry today. Facebook rolled out graph search. A registered user can run queries answered by content within the Facebook “database.” How will it work? Public content becomes the corpus. Navigate to the BBC write up “Facebook Unveils Social Search Tools for Users.”
A comment by Facebook’s founder which caught my attention was:
“We look at Facebook as a big social database,” said Mr Zuckerberg, adding that social search was Facebook’s “third pillar” and stood beside the news feed and timeline as the foundational elements of the social network.
The former Googler allegedly responsible for Facebook’s search allegedly observed:
On graph search, you can only see content that people have shared with you,” developer Lars Rasmussen, who was previously the co-founder of Google Maps, told reporters.
So no reprise of the various privacy missteps the GOOG made. Facebook wants to avoid some of its fast dancing over privacy too.
How disruptive will Facebook search be?
First, the Facebook users will give search a whirl. The initial queries will be tire kicking stuff. Once some patterns emerge, the Facebook bean counters will slip the switch on ads. That, not search, may cause Google some moments of concern. Google, like Microsoft, has to protect its one trick revenue pony. Facebook won’t stampede the cattle, but those doggies will wander. If the pasture is juicy, Facebook will let those cows roam. Green pastures can be fragile ecosystems.
Second, search sucks. Facebook could answer certain types of questions better than the brute force Web indexing services. If users discover the useful functions of Facebook, traffic for the weak sisters like Blekko and Yahoo could head south. The Google won’t be hurt right away, but the potential for Facebook to index only urls cited by registered users could be a more threatening step. Surgical search, not brute force, may slice some revenues from the Google.
Third, Facebook could learn, as Google did, that search is a darned good thing. Armed with the social info and the Facebook users’ curated urls, Facebook could cook up a next generation search solution that could snow on Googzilla’s parade. Google Plus is interesting but Facebook may be just the outfit to pop search up a level. Google is not an innovator, so Facebook may be triggering a new search arms race.
Thank goodness.
Stephen E Arnold, January 16, 2013
Big Data Infrastructure and Apps Work Together to Enable Real Time Information Access
January 16, 2013
Venture Beat published an important piece on the realm of big data technologies recently. In “The Future of ‘Big Data’ is Apps Not Infrastructure,” the author points to the land of opportunity for vendors and businesses – and venture capitalists.
This article calls for big data applications that integrate insights and deliver them to the widest group of users that are a part of the particular business process targeted. Emphasis is placed on the need for applications to enable the greatest number of employees to access and analyze information presented.
More context around the current state of big data in the media and beyond is offered:
It’s not just the media that has been focused on Big Data infrastructure, much of the recent venture and growth equity investment activity has gravitated towards the tools and platforms needed to manage Big Data and deliver analytic insights. However the largest wave of Big Data value creation is still to come and it will focus on exploiting the infrastructure to create new applications that analytically optimize business processes.
Software vendors that can deliver infrastructure and applications will be set in the current market. We have our eyes on PolySpot since they specialize in both and have been helping organizations in delivering information near real-time since 2001.
Megan Feil, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
Security Solutions Find Greater Dependence on Open Source
January 16, 2013
Information technology security is always on the top of the list in terms of priorities. Increasingly, open source is playing a larger role in developing security solutions. Open source brings lots of good things to the table including agility, creativity, and cost effectiveness. The article, “Risk I/O Lowers Risk by Raising IT Security Intelligence,” discusses how Risk I/O is building security on top of an open source foundation.
The article gets to the point with Risk I/O’s utilization of Apache Solr:
“According to Bellis, the Risk I/O platform uses the open source Ruby on Rails framework on the front end, as well as the open source Apache Solr search technology. Risk I/O’s prioritization and predictive analytics capabilities are proprietary technologies. From a security perspective, all of the data used on the platform is encrypted both while at rest and while in motion.”
Open source not only contributes to security solutions themselves, but also increases the security advantage of any software solution built on open source. Another open source software offering is LucidWorks, also built on Apache Solr. LucidWorks specializes in enterprise search technology, with a new LucidWorks Big Data suite devoted to the emerging Big Data phenomenon. LucidWorks is worth a look for a secure and cost effective enterprise search solution.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft Signs Up For The US Military
January 16, 2013
Uncle Sam wants every capable and willing young man or woman to serve their country, but this time the US military picked something else to join the team. Slashdot reported that the “US Military Signs Modernization Deal With Microsoft.” Three branches of the US military: the air force, army, and the Defense Information Systems Agency signed an agreement with Microsoft for updates to the software among all three.
“According to Microsoft, the deal will cover 75% of all Department of Defense personnel, and bring to them the latest versions of SharePoint, Office, and Windows. The deal awards Microsoft $617 million, which is after discounts to the software totaling in the tens of millions. Interestingly, DISA’s senior procurement executive said, ‘[The agreement] recognizes the shift to mobility. Microsoft is committed to making sure that the technology within the agreement has a mobile-first focus, and we expect to begin to take advantage of Microsoft’s mobile offerings as part of our enterprise mobility ecosystem.’”
It is only an enterprise and mobile upgrade and not an installation of powerful, new weapons grade software. The military probably does use SharePoint, Windows, and Office to discuss confidential information and if they were using old software it cuts down on productivity and accuracy. Microsoft keeps an important client with the agreement. We wonder how the military will like Windows 8.
Whitney Grace, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Venture Funding Tracker from Digimind Offers Enhanced Features
January 16, 2013
Digimind drives competitive intelligence information with its service that tracks venture funding. Now that’s smart digging. TheNextWeb informs us, “WhoGotFunded.com Unveils Premium Accounts Offering More Filters, Keyword Searches, and Data Exports.” Three new premium account types offer users a number of useful features.
The free version of WhoGotFunded is still available, but the paid options may be worth the cost if your organization requires extended filtering, more than three results from keyword searches, or the ability to export data on more than three deals per month. Paying up also gets users “power” email alerts and user support. The write-up by Ken Yeung reports:
“Started by a group of technologists, the site uses text mining technology to curate funding news for any company around the world. When we spoke with Paul Vivant, one of the founders, he said that the site’s goal was to build the most comprehensive funding database in the world that would become ‘a source for venture capitalists, business angels, founders, CEOs, corporate executives, journalists, bloggers, and investment bankers’. . .
“The company is offering a free 14-day trial with its Starter plan, which costs $49 per month. The next two plans are $149 and $749 per month, respectively. Each plan offers the same amount of credits, search results, and features — the main difference is just how much data do you get.”
Yeung notes that there are similar services out there, but Digimind seems to be confident that it has something unique to offer. The company works to save its clients time and money by automating and streamlining the collection, analysis, and sharing of data. Its global client list includes organizations from a broad range of industries.
Cynthia Murrell, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Changes in Tech Business Trends Predicted for New Year
January 16, 2013
Dan Lyons at ReadWrite has high hopes for the tech industry this year, declaring, “2013: The Year When Things Get Real Again.” He means that quite literally. The article states:
“By real I mean we’re going to be focusing on real companies that make real products that cost real money and get bought and used by other real companies. Not those [cruddy], kooky, consumer-focused startups that can’t raise any more money. I’m talking about companies whose products involve real engineering, stuff that goes beyond what three kids can do in a weekend on a startup bus on their way to SXSW.”
Lyons has several purveyors of the real in mind. He devotes a paragraph each to three promising firms: Acquia builds its business around support for its own open-source Drupal software. FuzeBox makes a quality, low-cost videoconferencing system. And Leap Motion, whom he says could be the year’s biggest break-out story, develops innovative hand-gesture technology. He also pins hopes on Box, Cloudera, GoodData, MobileIron, Zendesk, Okta, and Ping Identity.
All these businesses, Lyons says, make money by selling their products, not by selling ads. He sees some positive effects of this retro approach for customers:
“[These companies] don’t have to resort to a business model based on tricking people and exploiting them. They don’t have to resort to doing sneaky things with terms of service agreements or privacy policies. Nope, this is straight-up business. You give us money, we give you our stuff.”
Lyons points out that the direct monetary exchange creates an accountability that is missing from the ad-based model. That does sound like a welcome direction; we’ll see whether it manifests as predicted.
Cynthia Murrell, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Polyspot Provides New Search Engine for Algoma University
January 15, 2013
PolySpot, an open search solutions provider, has been all over the news lately for partnering with various companies to help out with their search troubles. The recent PolySpot blog post “Polyspot on the Algoma University Web Site” announces a new project that PolySpot is participating in with the University.
The blog post reveals:
“With our partners TerminalFour, we now provide Algoma University (Canada) with a new search engine for its website. After the Sacred Heart University, we are happy to offer Algoma students and potential students a relevant and easy search tool through all content available on the University Web site.”
Here at Beyond Search we are glad to see that Polyspot is sharing its cutting edge search technologies with Colleges and Universities. Its easy-to-use enterprise search solution is making great strides to improve the industry at large. Check out the company’s Web site for more information about PolySpot.
Jasmine Ashton, January 14, 2013
Businesses Gain Insights and Opportunities Using Technologies from Polyspot
January 15, 2013
Media coverage and analysis of big data has made an impact on small business owners according to a recent article from Inc. In “Baffled By Big Data? Use ‘Small’ Data Instead,”a survey from Harris Interactive is discussed and some interesting findings are revealed.
It turns out that 76% of firms polled stand by big data: they believe it holds immense opportunities for their business. However, the article points to a few other numbers that could make the 74% appear problematic. 28% of the companies polled believe big data means massive growth of transaction data and 24% think big data refers to new technologies for managing massive data. Still another 19% say that is is the requirement to store and archive data for regulatory compliance.
The article states:
What does that boil down to? Big data holds lots of promise, sure, but for small businesses, realizing the benefits of this trend may still be pretty far out of reach. So should the average founder simply throw up their hands and click along to the next article whenever they read yet another headline about how they need to be using more data to run their business?
The article overanalyzes these findings to make a mountain out of a molehill. Small businesses are perfectly poised to extract insights from data using solutions like PolySpot that offer affordable technologies for small businesses to gain valuable insights and opportunities from data.
Megan Feil, January 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search.
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
