Quote to Note: Google Plus Surely Doomed?
November 10, 2011
Quote to note: Today is November 9, 2011, and I just read an article in an online publication which I thought was going to shut down several times. So predictions about the death of an online service can be wrong. Nevertheless, point your browser thing at “Google+ Is Dead.” Absorb the information, but here’s the quote I have now safely tucked away into the Beyond Search archive:
But a social network isn’t a product; it’s a place. Like a bar or a club, a social network needs a critical mass of people to be successful—the more people it attracts, the more people it attracts. Google couldn’t have possibly built every one of Facebook’s features into its new service when it launched, but to make up for its deficits, it ought to have let users experiment more freely with the site. That freewheeling attitude is precisely how Twitter—the only other social network to successfully take on Facebook in the last few years—got so big. When Twitter users invented ways to reply to one another or echo other people’s tweets, the service didn’t stop them—it embraced and extended their creativity. This attitude marked Twitter as a place whose hosts appreciated its users, and that attitude—and all the fun people were having—pushed people to stick with the site despite its many flaws (Twitter’s frequent downtime, for example). Google+, by contrast, never managed to translate its initial surge into lasting enthusiasm. And for that reason, it’s surely doomed.
Yowza. “Surely doomed.” But aren’t we all?
Stephen E Arnold, November 10, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google and Competitive Position
November 7, 2011
Quote to note: I read “Google Chairman Eric Tells US Senators Apple’s Siri Could Pose ‘Competitive Threat‘”.
Here’s the quote:
I would disagree that Google is dominant,” he said after senators asserted that Google is approaching a monopoly. “By investing smartly, hiring extremely talented engineers, and working very, very hard (and with some good luck), Google has been blessed with a great deal of success.”
Definitely a keeper. I like the “luck” touch too.
Staephen E Arnold, November 7, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Quote to Note: Modern Truisms
October 18, 2011
I don’t plan on getting back on the rubber chicken circuit, but a good quote is often useful. I noted one in the hard copy newspaper of the faltering New York Times. The story with the quote was “A Series of Red Flags for Financial Planning Concern,” page B5 of the Personal Business section in the Business Section of the October 15, New York Times. I love that metadata. Don’t you?
Here’s the quote attributed to Dan Candura, “a financial planner,” whose photograph accompanies the article. Mr. Candura does not have the cheerful demeanor of a character on the defunct TV show “Friends” in my opinion. He allegedly said:
It’s easier to sell the bad stuff than the good stuff.
I must say that when I read the quote I thought about search and content processing marketers, azure chip consultants flogging studies, and assorted unemployed English teachers, failed Webmasters, and political science majors turned “search expert.”
What is the “bad stuff”. Well, if I understand the New York Times’ write up, the “bad stuff” are investments that are too good to be true. In search and content processing, the “bad stuff” are systems which contain cost spikes like those children’s toys which shoot a crazy doll in one’s face without warning.
The only problem, of course, is that the search bad stuff does not end with cost spikes. Other “benefits” of selling search and content processing systems include:
- Content adaptors which don’t work as advertised or have to be customized to handle a specific client situation
- Technical issues associated with updating indexes in “real time”, a bogus concept in my experience
- The need for “eternal engineering support.” The idea is that the license gets the consultants in the door. The consultants never leave, however.
A pop and tune from the Jack in the Box lovers to Mr. Candura, who was quite “candid”.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
IBM Watson in Health Care
September 12, 2011
Quote to note: A keeper. Navigate to the PR festival in “IBM Putting Watson to Work in Health Insurance.” The main idea, if I understood the write up, is that fresh from the game show win, IBM Watson is going to help diagnose illnesses. The stakes may be a trifle higher than a staged TV show’s, but I suspended disbelief when reading the story. With news about the US government cracking down on health care fraud starting to appear in “real” media, I tagged a quote to note. Here you go. The alleged author of the statement is Lori Beer, an executive vice president at Indianapolis-based WellPoint. This outfit is paying IBM for the Watson search elixir. She allegedly said:
It’s really a game-changer in health care…patients needn’t worry that Watson will be used to help insurers deny benefits.
Sounds fantastic. Now the goose will watch the hands of time move forward to see if the health care “game” is changed and it fraud investigators really ignore a technology that could save the US government billions of dollars in erroneous or fraudulent payments.
I am punching the button on my cheap iPad app which counts down. Plonk.
Stephen E Arnold, September 12, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Quote to Note: Ecosystem Is Where It Is At
August 21, 2011
Quote to note: I was flipping through posts in one of my Overflight files today and read “HTC Pledges Support for Google.”
Here is the passage I noted. Mark the date, August 20, 2011. In the next six to 12 months, this quote may be a touch stone:
Chou [HTC boss] says “it’s not the operating system, it’s the ecosystem,” adding “we think we can find a way to differentiate to add value, but at the same time leverage our partners, Google and Microsoft, since we have such a great relationship with them.”
My view? Watch and wait. I think I will check out my copy of The Art of War. I remember reading something along these lines:
All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
Nah, not relevant.
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Quote to Note: Google Motorola
August 16, 2011
Quote to note: I don’t have much light to shed on the purchase of Motorola by Google.
The Roman army’s testudo. Great strategy as long as the enemy did what Roman commanders expected. The unexpected? Well, the testudo still makes for interesting footage in movies like The Gladiator. Image source: A happy quack to http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=2975.1410
I have been flicking through the inputs and outputs from pundits of all persuasions. One write up—“The Truth about the Google Motorola Deal: it Could End Up Being a Disaster”—contained a statement I wanted to capture. Here it is:
… a big rationale for making this deal seems to be about buying mobile patents–and, thus, “defending” Android from Apple’s and Microsoft’s attacks. It seems safe to say that, six months ago, investors and partners did not realize that Google was going to have to shell out $13 billion to “defend” Android, let alone start competing with its hardware partners.
I have highlighted the two key words and phrases in this passage.
My focus is search. But as enticing as mobile search is, these two words do not suggest to me that Google is focusing on its core competency. Tactical moves, surprising investors and hardware partners, and moving into the digital equivalent of the testudo—fascinating. Do I have thoughts about fragmentation, Google’s management capabilities, or the litigation that Motorola brings along with its original SMS technology? Nope. Think the turtle and what happened when Rome’s allies got frisky.
Stephen E Arnold, August 16, 2011
Sponsored by The New Landscape of Search
Quote to Note from British Telecom
August 4, 2011
Quote to note: The source is a story in the quite enjoyable The Register. The article with the gem was “BT on Site Blocking: Every Case Will Need a Court Order.”
“We believe in an open internet – we won’t do any other blocking,” he told us. “We will never stop our customers getting to any service they want to get to.`Unless a court orders us to.”
A keeper.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2011
Quote to Note: Google Is Polluted
July 27, 2011
Quote to note: A routine day in Kentucky. A transformer adjacent the goose pond exploded at 1 15 pm. A little curiosity from the local police, the fire department, and the electrical company. Sigh. When the power flickered to life after a seven hour outage, I read “Facebook Investor Roger McNamee Explains Why Social Is Over.” The write up had a video to a speech in which the quote to note allegedly appears. I am not a video goose, so I focused on the write up. The alleged quote from a superstar and venture type was:
Google is a victim of its own success: its search has become polluted by SEOs. What shows that Google has failed is all those “non-search” services that really solve a search problem, like Match.com or Realtor.com. If you add them all up, they account for 50% of searches.
Accurate? Who knows. I quite liked the turn of phrase in “polluted by SEOs”, however.
Stephen E Arnold, July 24, 2011
Freebie
Quote to Note: Xoogler on Management
July 14, 2011
Quote to note: The juicy item appeared in “Facebook Exec: Google Is Blocking My Book.” I saw a presentation about social circles and then I heard a pundit talk about “the rings of Saturn.” Good idea, but I sort of figured out the notion of hierarchical clustering a while ago. Tucked in the article, however, was a keeper for my “Quotes” folder. Here she be:
… I wasn’t being listened to when it came to executing that strategy. My peers listened intently, but persuading the leadership was a losing battle. Google values technology, not social science. I also moved because the culture had changed dramatically in the few years I was at Google. It became much more bureaucratic and political.
I find this interesting because it suggests that sharp employees are allegedly suffering from bureaucracy. I find the notion of controlled chaos spawning a bureaucracy fascinating. Oxymoron does not do the clash of concepts justice. I thought about the “listen” reference, but I won’t go there.
Stephen E Arnold, July 14, 2011
A freebie. No sponsor. Sigh.
Quote to Note: Dr. Phil Would Be Proud of Google and Its Sensitivity
June 7, 2011
Yep, tucked in one of Google’s crunchy blog posts was a keeper. Navigate to “Google Discontinues Its First Specialized Search Engines.” Ignore the baloney about Uncle Sam because the GOOG continues to be aced out of that juicy GSA plum pudding. Here’s the quote I noted:
We understand that some users were surprised by this change, so we apologize for not communicating more clearly in advance of redirecting these services to Google.com.
Why tell non-Googlers anything? Oh, I think I know. I think I know. (Wave hand like a Type A fifth grader.) The answer? “Everyone is busy criticizing China for being—well—China.
Rel=Stephen E Arnold, June 8, 2011
Just joking, coders. Just joking. Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
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