Up Your Irrelevance Game. Sorry, SEO Game
October 8, 2018
Can your business save money by doing SEO itself? It’s the question that so many business owners have asked but may have been too afraid to act upon. However, it might be time to give it a shot, if you are willing to work on a steep learning curve. That was the confidence we walked away with after reading the recent Search Engine Journal story “What to Do When Things Go Wrong in SEO.”
Two tips that stood out to us revolved around what to do when your SEO isn’t working. Here are good places to consider:
- Paid Links: Any form of payment is considered a problem by Google. If you’re buying ads and getting links to your site in return, the best policy is to implement a “nofollow” attribute on those links so Google won’t think you’re trying to spam their search results.
- Web Directories: These are sites that organize websites into hierarchical directories, and these are largely useless today.
Seems simple, right?
While you might have to struggle through some trial and error to get a footing, it’s not out of anyone’s reach. In fact, lots of people are taking the reins of their own marketing and SEO. We vote that you should try. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work; Google penalizes you; you lose revenue; and you hire an expert or buy Google ads. Efficient.
Patrick Roland, October 8, 2018
A Secret Revealed: Mobiles Can Double Surveillance Devices
October 7, 2018
The real journalists have revealed a secret known to hundreds of thousands of people, maybe more. Navigate to “Are the Presidential Alerts Capable of Accessing Your Phone’s Mic and Camera.” The answer comes from a true wizard, a model entrepreneur. The expert is John McAfee, an interesting person with a remarkable biography.
He revealed:
“The ‘Presidential alerts,’” McAfee tweeted Wednesday, “they are capable of accessing the E911 chip in your phones – giving them full access to your location, microphone, camera and every function of your phone. This not a rant, this is from me, still one of the leading cybersecurity experts. Wake up people!”
Here in Harrod’s Creek, no information about the impact of this super big secret has reached us.
We assume the reporter to whom Mr. McAfee revealed this cogent, lucid statement did not die of heart failure.
That good. We think.
Stephen E Arnold, October 7, 2018
Elastic Bounces and Rolls Away from Other Search Vendors
October 6, 2018
Please, do not confuse what Bing and Google deliver as “search” with the type of information access system which is available from Elastic. The founder of Compass Search (remember that?) has emerged as the big dog in the information access world. At a time when direct competitors like Attivio, Coveo, and Funnelback are working overtime to become something other than information access providers, Elastic and its Elasticsearch ecosystem have pulled off a digital kudzu play.
The evidence is not the raucous Elastic developer conferences. The proof is not the fact that most policeware vendors use Elastic as the plumbing for their systems. The hard facts are dollars.
I learned that Elastic pulled off its IPO and closed up 94.4 percent. Talk about happy investors. Those believers in the Shay Bannon approach must be turning cartwheels. For more financial insights, navigate to “Search Company Elastic Nearly Doubles on First Trading Day.” The write up states:
The debut rally is all the more pronounced because it comes on a down day for the broader market, particularly the tech sector.
Elastic, it seems, represents a bright spot.
Congrats to Mr. Bannon and the Elastic team.
There are some outfits likely to take a hard look at their “search” business. Among them will be the vendors of proprietary search systems like the companies I mentioned above. Most of these outfits continue to find a way to make their investors happy. Attivio bounces between business intelligence and search. Coveo roves from search to customer support. Funnelback, well, Funnelback chugs along because one of their management team told me that the company is not open source. I wonder if that wizard wishes it were playing open source canasta.
The more interesting company to consider in the context of the Elastic solid triple in the search big leagues is LucidWorks. This company played its open source card. The company flipped CEOs, changed its focus, and emulated the polymorphic approach to search that the proprietary vendors followed. LucidWorks then found itself facing the Amazon search system staffed helpfully with a LucidWorks’ veteran or two. LucidWorks has consumed more than $100 million in investment capital, pushed founder Marc Krellenstein down the memory hole, and watched as the Elastic outfit blasted past LucidWorks and into the lushness of the IPO. Both companies had similar business models. Both companies leveraged the open source development community. Both companies followed similar marketing scripts.
But there was a difference.
Shay Bannon provided vision and he figured out that he needed a strong supporting cast. The result is that Elastic moved forward, added capabilities, made prudent decisions about supplemental modules, and offered reasonable for fee option to those who tried out the open source version of the search system and then moved to pay for service and other goodies available from Elastic.
The result?
The future for LucidWorks now looks a bit different. The company has to find a way to pay back its investors. The firm’s Elastic like business model may have to be reevaluated. Heck, the product line up may be require a refurbishing comparable to those performed on automobile programs which take an interesting vehicle and turn it into a winner.
Unfortunately fixing up search vendors is not as easy to do in real life. A TV show has the benefit of post production and maybe some color and sound experts to spiff up the automobile.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sltrib.s3.amazonaws.com/public/NGG3Q5HFNVFIVKF2EKJQAOBSPY.jpg)
Competitors like LucidWorks will have to spiff up their 1956 automobiles in order to catch customers’ eyes as Elastic rolls rapidly into the future.
Search doesn’t work that way.
The question becomes, “What will LucidWorks do?”
Even those of us in Harrod’s Creek know what Elastic will do. The company will chug along and become the go to way to provide utility search, log analysis, and other basic functions to outfits which appear to be independent high tech search wizards.
Stephen E Arnold, October 6, 2018
HSSCM: Updates from Facebook and Snapchat
October 5, 2018
High school science club management methods are flourishing.
I wanted to highlight two examples of interesting ways to operate publicly traded companies in the spotlight.
The first example of HSSCM comes from Facebook, truly a gold mine of examples. I learned that a Facebook executive sat in a photo op location during the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. My source was “Facebook’s Head of Public Policy Is Supporting the Kavanaugh Nomination, and Some Employees Are Livid.” A Facebook top dog named Joel Kaplan appeared, at least to the Verge, to endorse “his close friend.”
The result, according to the write up, “roiled the social network.” I like the word roiled. The real journalists at the Verge reported:
For Facebook, the controversy over Kaplan represents a new point of division at a company that is still grappling with the Instagram founders’ unexpected departure and the largest data breach in its history. Only when it comes to the Kaplan controversy, it’s not clear to me what the company’s next move should be. The C suite seems to have been annoyed by Kaplan’s attendance, but was initially dismissive of employees’ concerns. (How concerned are employees? My favorite detail in Isaac’s story is that they went into Kaplan’s calendar and learned that he had not in fact taken the 27th as a personal day, as Kaplan initially stated. The calendar was later updated to reflect that it was, indeed, a personal day.)
It appears in the canon of the HSSCM method that it is not necessary to know what senior executives are doing. Furthermore, revisionism in the form of modifying a digital calendar, is supported. I also enjoyed learning that in this particular HSSCM example, the concerns of the employees were not at the top of the to do list.
Implications? I suppose there is a possibility that some MBA might interpret the method as exemplary decision making regarding a chain of command, time allocation, and awareness of the senior staff activities.
The second example concerns Snapchat, a service which I admit I never understood and still do not.
I captured this HSSCM method in the write up “9 Highlights from Snapchat CEO’s 6000-Word Leaked Memo on Survival.” Like leaks at Google and Palantir, the fact that someone released an internal memo suggests that shared values about how to handle confidential information may be lacking. Science club members have to be loyal, right?
My first reaction to the write up was, “6,000 words is a lot of words for a memo.” If I worked at Snapchat, I am not sure I would read that document. Some employees obviously concluded that reading and leaking were proof of the HSSCM approach.
I found a couple of the management principles embedded in the memo semi-interesting.
Item One, I noted the admission that the company moved too quickly. Well, it did break things, including usage of the software. An added plus was social media visibility. Annoyed users expressed their displeasure with a Snapchat design tweak. HSSCM knows how to get publicity. That’s a plus.
Item Two, a service called Discover is good. But the service is a “mess.” Hey, that’s part of the break things. The fix? Make Discover a “lean back” experience. I love the word experience. HSSCM methods deliver experiences, just like Google ads’ redesign which features the word “experience” instead of “increasing revenues”. See the email sent by Google on October 4, 2018, with the friendly, warm experience of the mail address: ads-noreply@google.com.
To sum up, here are the HSSCM methods I extracted from these two case examples:
- It is not necessary to know what senior managers are doing during the day on prime time television for six or seven hours
- It is okay to make it easy to modify digital calendars which is a trendy approach to revisionism
- It is okay to make decision in a hurry, ignore feedback, and then apologize. That is a way to move fast and put broken things back together.
- It is okay to create services which appear to be a mess. Creative destruction, right?
No wonder sign ups for MBA degrees are sinking. Who needs to study management when HSSCM methods are within reach of anyone working at a tech centric company?
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2018
Sensational Development from Real Publishers
October 5, 2018
You thought I was going to offer a comment about the Bloomberg report about Supermicro motherboards. Wrong. Frankly when one purchases hardware from sources which operate in far off lands, one often may not know exactly what functions and features those semi magical devices harbor. That is one reason why some law enforcement and intelligence organizations use Faraday cages and approach hardware with a bit of skepticism. How true are the Bloomberg allegation and the subsequent verbal arabesques like this one?
The hair on fire reaction to the allegedly accurate and then allegedly accurate information suggests that some people are concerned.
Nope, the big news from the world of real publishers and real publishing is different. Navigate to this Chicago Tribune report. The write up explains that the Tronc organization is changing its name back to Tribune Publishing.
Personally I liked the word Tronc. The judgment of the real publishing management professionals was on display.
Sadly Tronc has been retired. The article reported (accurately, I assume):
“We are excited about the company rebranding to Tribune Publishing,” spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said in a statement. “It’s a nod to our roots, and a reinforcement of the journalistic foundation on which all of our news brands stand.”
Yep, a journalistic foundation which Tronc did not suggest.
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2018
Surf with Freedom: China, Iran, Russia, and Other Countries May Not Notice
October 5, 2018
How does this sound to you?
Intra included the following feature list:
• Free access to websites and apps blocked by DNS manipulation
• No limits on data usage and it won’t slow down your internet connection
• Open source
• Keep your information private – Intra doesn’t track the apps you use or websites you visit
• Customize your DNS server provider — use your own or pick from popular providers
You can get the scoop by reading “On Protected: Your Connection Is Protected from DNS Attacks.”
The service is provided by Jigsaw, an outfit under the wing of Google.
The article explains:
With Intra, they’ve created an app that protects against DNS manipulation. This is an app for the world to access the entire internet without, for example, government censorship.
For now this is an Android app, which may be a mobile phone operating system less of a hurdle for some surveillance activities. Of course, authorities in China, Iran, and Russia will remain unaware of this Google-centric app. I wonder if anyone in the US will notice?
Nah, probably not. I like the warnings issued to me by my browsers about unsafe sites, and I think the outcomes of DNS manipulations are interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2018
COBOL Cowboys. Where Are the Cowgirls? Where Is the Trail Boss?
October 4, 2018
I love ThomsonReuters. Every once in a while, its real journalists craft a gem. I submit that “Banks Scramble to Fix Old Systems as IT Cowboys Ride into Sunset.” I will not point out that eliminating the “the” before “sunset” is a quite trendy touch.
The point of the write up is that when a bank hires an individual to work on systems, that engineer may love python, tolerate C, and maybe invite Java in for coffee once a month or so.
The write up reports that a banker allegedly said:
It [dealing with COBOL based systems] is immensely complex which sells new IT infrastructure to banks. “Legacy systems from different generations are layered and often heavily intertwined.
No kidding. Who knew? I recall the Year 2000 hysteria which sparked a bit of interest in COBOL. My memory may be fading. Perhaps that money gusher for COBOL professionals was an illusion.
A couple of observations:
First, COBOL has been around for 60 years. Innovations and alternatives have been around for decades. The failure of major institutions to invest in infrastructure is one reason why Amazon could provide a solution. There’s more money in banking than there is in selling eBooks, by the way.
Second, the notion of programmers as cowboys strikes me as odd when the #MeToo movement and its assorted fireworks are in evidence. A modest nod to non male COBOL wizards seems to be an odd omission. I saw the word cowboys and I wondered if the folks running this outfit should be asked to create a more appropriate name; for example, Gender Neutral COBOL Remediation or GNCR. I like it. Perhaps a Twitter storm will erupt.
Third, years ago I assumed Boards of Directors were supposed to provide inputs and help senior management figure out what to do with computers, software, and other business decisions. Have the Boards of Directors remained unaware of technological advances for more than half a century? That’s a question to which the answer seems to be, “Yes.” I am assuming that the TR write up is on the money.
Finally, what’s up with bank regulatory entities? It seems to me that somewhere along the regulatory chain the question, “What should be the minimum for bank technology enhancements?” I wonder if IBM has played a small role in keeping those mainframes humming? No, IBM would not make it difficult (technically or financially) to get free from the mainframe grasp. I assume I could ask Watson, but maybe not.
To sum up, ThomsonReuters’ article is a gem. I wonder if ThomsonReuters is running obsolete computer and network infrastructure hardware? Are these some DEC 20s lurking in Boston? Are banks able to search their documents in a reliable, satisfactory way? Why have the trail bosses lost the cattle?
Yikes, too many questions.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2018
Google: An Extension of Your Brain
October 4, 2018
Are we beginning to think more like a search engine, or is Google learning to think like us? It’s a valuable question that some of the brightest minds in the business have recently attempted to tackle. We learned more about this study from a Nieman Journalism Lab story, “Google Isn’t Just a Search Engine, –It’s a Literal Extension of Our Minds.”
According to the story:
“[W]hen we integrate things from the external environment into our thinking processes, those external things play the same cognitive role as our brains do. As a result, they are just as much a part of our minds as neurons and synapses. Clark and Chalmers’ argument produced debate, but many other experts on the mind have since agreed.”
Researchers recently created AI that maps the brain’s neurons. We have a hunch that the intersection of search, AI, and human thought might just be the next great frontier for Silicon Valley. Imagine. One can search Google by thinking. What a wonderful way to deliver advertising.
Will I be able to determine where my thoughts end and Google’s ads begin? I know the answer. I want to eat at McDonalds.
Patrick Roland, October 4, 2018
One Internet? Not Likely
October 4, 2018
Some relationships are not made to last, but I never thought the Internet would break up with itself. I bet you are scratching your head wondering how the Internet could split apart, but the fault is one Asian country. Behind the Great Fire Wall, China could be working on its own Internet. Business Insider wrote that, “Google’s Ex-CEO Eric Schmidt Says The Internet Will Split In Two By 2028.”
Schmidt stated that by 2028, China will have their own version of the Internet. China does not like the western Internet and has a very powerful firewall that blocks unsavory Web sites. Schmidt believes the future Internet will be divided into the Chinese-led Internet and then the American-led Internet. Schmidt had this to say:
“If you look at China, and I was just there, the scale of the companies that are being built, the services being built, the wealth that is being created is phenomenal. Chinese Internet is a greater percentage of the GDP of China, which is a big number, than the same percentage of the US, which is also a big number. If you think of China as like ‘Oh yeah, they’re good with the Internet,’ you’re missing the point.
Globalization means that they get to play too. I think you’re going to see fantastic leadership in products and services from China. There’s a real danger that along with those products and services comes a different leadership regime from government, with censorship, controls, etc.”
The US is the world’s technology leader, but China has been ramping up its game since the early 2000s. China is on the verge of becoming a technological leader and could rival the US, especially in AI. The US appears to be the only option for the Internet, but if China creates its own Internet, other countries might adopt it.
This could be a big game changer in the world. The US has controlled many markets since World War II and China, probably will not topple them, but could be a strong rival.
Whitney Grace, October 4, 2018
Google and the Talking to Computers Chatbot Thing
October 3, 2018
No company wants to do customer service. Money only, please. To achieve the goal of having zero human interaction with other humans, Google continues to chug forward in the chatbot world.
The payoff is potentially huge. Imagine the number of companies eager to terminate full time, contract, and volunteer workers who field questions about products and services. Self service is not reading text pages on Web sites. Just dial a number and interact with a tireless, cheerful, intelligence software system.
Google obviously has not cracked the problem. The company has acquired Onward. This is a startup which had amassed $120,000 in funding. (Yep, I know this seems a modest sum.)
We learned of the deal in “Google Acquires AI Customer Service Startup Onward.” The write up revealed:
Onward’s enterprise chatbot platform leveraged natural language processing to extract meaning from customers’ messages. Drawing on signals like location, login status, and historical activity, it could personalize and contextualize its responses to questions. Onward’s visual bot builder, which let clients tailor answers with decision trees, afforded even greater customization.
Some of these functions have been available in Amazon’s Sagemaker for a couple of years. Like Microsoft, Google seems to recognize the threat that Amazon’s low profile approach to talking devices requires more attention.
Perhaps this will be the next big thing in getting a chatbot to explain why the caching behavior of an SSD drive causes a video render to crash. What change must I make to resolve the issue?
Maybe Siri? Maybe Watson? Maybe one of the chatbot marvels can answer the question?
And, to state the obvious, maybe not.
But $120,000 in funding. Whom can we ask?
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2018
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
