Relegence Relegated
July 25, 2009
B to B Online ran an interesting story with the headline “AOL Shuts Down B-to-B Portion of Relegence”. I liked Relegence’s real time news service. AOL sort of likes it. According to B to B Online:
“We will continue to own and operate the Relegence business, focusing solely on its consumer offering by leveraging its real-time headlines, news, financial and consumer information on MediaGlow sites such as AOL Money & Finance and WalletPop, in addition to implementing Relegence across the AOL network of sites,” an AOL spokesperson said in a statement.
Looks like some shake and bake is in the future of the Relegence team. The Google will have to look for a replacement for some of Relegence’s services that are linked to Google Finance.
Stephen Arnold, July 25, 2009
Twitter and Business
July 25, 2009
Short honk: “Twitter Offers Clues to the Puzzled” in Silicon Valley Blog provided an interesting tidbit to the goose’s bill. The comment that caught my attention was:
We need to do a better job of explaining ourselves to people who hear about us and then have no idea what do to.” Part of that effort is Twitter 101, a guide aimed at the business users the company may try to monetize some day.
Another monetization prognostication. In today’s economy, make money and take money. Promising revenues is easy. Generating revenues is tough. I just learned that SearchMe is a gone goose. A niche publisher has told staff that it is a four day week, folks. Twitter needs to crank the dough meter in my opinion. Businesses may not be the place to look for cash. Too much work to make the system pay off unless the businesses like the newly unemployed or the riffed folks in New Jersey have extra time on their hands.
Stephen Arnold, July 25, 2009
Alacra Pumps Up Its Information Heartbeat
July 24, 2009
Alacra, http://www.alacra.com, a technology company that aggregates content online, is extending its reach into real time information access and dispersal by adding Twitter and social bookmarking functions into Alacra Pulse. The Pulse portal, http://pulse.alacra.com, gathers and sorts investment industry news and blogs from the open web, tags key business events, and presents the information in an easy-to-use format at a single access point. The new features, Tweet This and Share This, assist in distributing information out of Pulse. They are designed to make it easier for users to share and track links to information on the site. Tweet This facilitates Twitter pre-programming, and a one-click integration with StockTwits, an open, community-powered investment idea and information service, gives users access to right-now announcements, tips, and even insider info while dispersing their own news that much faster. The Share This plugin punches right into big social sites like Facebook or business networks like Linked In. It also taps all those bookmark sites like delicious, digg, etc.
By expanding further into social media, Alacra is strengthening its search finger’s grip on the “pulse” of the business world. Real time information is the name of the game, and this dive into immediate feed data is, in our opinion, pushing Alacra a step ahead of similar services offered by Yellowbrix, Connotate, and Relegence. As the Internet moves even further into a dynamic business environment, tools like Alacra Pulse will be even more critical to those who need to be in the know.
Jessica Bratcher, July 24, 2009
The Gilbane Lecture: Google Wave as One Environmental Factor
July 14, 2009
Author’s note: In early June 2009, I gave a talk to about 50 attendees of the Gilbane content management systems conference in San Francisco. When I tried to locate the room in which I was to speak, the sign in team could not find me on the program. After a bit of 30 something “we’re sure we’re right” outputs, the organizer of the session located me and got me to the room about five minutes late. No worries because the Microsoft speaker was revved and ready.
When my turn came, I fired through my briefing in 20 minutes and plopped down, expecting no response from the audience. Whenever I talk about the Google, I am greeted with either blank stares or gentle snores. I was surprised because I did get several questions. I may have to start arriving late and recycling more old content. Seems to be a winner formula.
This post is a summary of my comments. I will hit the highlights. If you want more information about this topic, you can get it by searching this Web log for the word “Wave”, buying the IDC report No. 213562 Sue Feldman and I did last September, or buying a copy of Google: The Digital Gutenberg. If you want to grouse about my lack of detail, spare me. This is a free Web log that serves a specific purpose for me. If you are not familiar with my editorial policy, take a moment to get up to speed. Keep in mind I am not a journalist, don’t pretend to be one, and don’t want to be included in the occupational category.
Here’s we go with my original manuscript written in UltraEdit from which I gave my talk on June 5, 2009, in San Francisco:
For the last two years, I have been concluding my Google briefings with a picture of a big wave. I showed the wave smashing a skin cancer victim, throwing surfer dude and surf board high into the air. I showed the surfer dude riding inside the “tube”. I showed pictures of waves smashing stuff. I quite like the pictures of tsunami waves crushing fancy resorts, sending people in sherbert colored shirts and beach wear running for their lives.
Yep, wave.
Now Google has made public why I use the wave images to explain one of the important capabilities Google is developing. Today, I want to review some features of what makes the wave possible. Keep in mind that the wave is a consequence of deeper geophysical forces. Google operates at this deeper level, and most people find themselves dealing with the visible manifestations of the company’s technical physics.
Source: http://www.toocharger.com/fiches/graphique/surf/38525.htm
This is important for enterprise search for three reasons. First, search is a commodity and no one, not even I, find key word queries useful. More sophisticated information retrieval methods are needed on the “surface” and in the deeper physics of the information factory. Second, Google is good at glacial movement. People see incremental actions that are separated in time and conceptual space. Then these coalesce and the competitors say, “Wow, where did that come from?” Google Wave, the present media darling, is a superficial development that combines a number of Google technologies. It is not the deep geophysical force, however. Third, Google has a Stalin-era type of planning horizon. Think in terms of five years, then you have the timeline on which to plot Google developments. Wave, in fact, is more than three years old if you start when Google bought a company called Transformics, older if you dig into the background of the Transformics technology and some other components Google snagged in the last five years. Keep that time thing in mind.
First, key word search is at a dead end. I have been one of the most vocal critics of key word search and variants of that approach. When someone says, “Key word search is what we need,” I reply, “Search is dead.” In my mind, I add, “So is your future in this organization.” I keep my parenthetical comment to myself.
Users need information access, not a puzzle to solve in order to open the information lock box. In fact, we have now entered the era of “data anticipation”, a phrase I borrowed from SAS, the statistics outfit. We have to view search in terms of social analytics because human interactions provide important metadata not otherwise obtainable by search, semantic, or linguistic technology. I will give you an example of this to make this type of metadata crystal clear.
You work at Enron. You get an email about creating a false transaction. You don’t take action but you forward the email to your boss and then ignore the issue. When Enron collapsed, the “fact” that you knew and did nothing when you first knew and subsequently is used to make a case that you abetted fraud. You say, “I sent the email to my boss.” From your prison cell, you keep telling your attorney the same thing. Doesn’t matter. The metadata about what you did to that piece of information through time put your tail feather in a cell with a biker convicted of third degree murder and a prior for aggravated assault.
Got it?
Another Real Time Search Angle
July 7, 2009
Along with James Bond, urban legends have reached the wireless digital age, but this “legend” is true: there is Spyware for cell phones, and someone could be listening and tracking your every move. Check out this article at http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=9346833&ClientType=Printable that includes confirmation of the legitimate danger of these products by a former military intelligence officer who now teaches cyber forensics at Purdue University’s Department of Computer and Information Technology. While cell phone spyware has been used by the FBI in the past, it’s now available on the open market from overseas. And while the article includes some tips for suspecting spyware and protecting yourself, reading about the possible danger is enough to make you reconsider using a cell phone at all.
Jessica Bratcher, July 7, 2009
A Google Vulnerability Exposed
June 22, 2009
Erick Schonfeld’s “When It Comes to Search Trends, Google Is Lagging Behind Bing” identifies a potential Google weakness. I think TechCrunch is on to something, but I think the visible vulnerability explained by Mr. Schonfeld is a symptom of a deeper problem.
The weakness is an ability to handle what’s new and what’s happening. Mr. Schonfeld, wrote:
As Microsoft tries to take away market share from Google with its new search engine, Bing
, it is battling Google feature by feature. One feature where Microsoft seems to be edging out Google is with displaying recent search trends. This may not be a major feature, but it shows a weakness in Google’s armor.
Mr. Schonfeld presented sample queries that illustrate this issue. The bottom-line is that for the most recent information, I may want to use more than Google. Bing.com is one option and there are the numerous real time search systems available.
My take on this is different. Keep in mind that I think Mr. Schonfeld has identified a symptom, the deeper disease is “time deficiency.” As zippy as the Google system is when responding to queries, the Google is not as fast on the intake and indexing of real time data flows such as those from social networks.
My research has identified several reasons:
- Google’s attention is on its leapfrog technologies such as Google Fusion and Google Wave. Both of these are manifestations of a larger Google play. While the wizards focused on these innovations, the real time content explosion took place, leaving Google without a here-and-now response
- Google is big and it is suffering from the same administrative friction that plagued IBM when Microsoft pulled off the disc operating system coup and that hobbled Microsoft when Google zoomed into Web search. Now the Google finds itself aware of Facebook, Twitter, and similar services yet without a here-and-now response. Slow out of the blocks may mean losing the race.
- Google’s plumbing is not connected to the real time streams from social and RSS services. Sure, there is some information, but it is simply not as fresh as what I can find on Scoopler and some other services.
What we have is a happy circumstance. If Microsoft can exploit that weakness, I think it has a chance to capture traffic in the real time sector. But having identified a weakness does not mean that hemlock can be poured into Googzilla’s ear.
There are some other weaknesses at the Google as well. I will be talking about one at the NFAIS conference on Friday, June 26, 2009. Get too many weaknesses, and these nicks start to hurt. Addled geese have to be very careful but big companies are often too big and tough to be worried about a few nicks. If there are a thousand of them, well, the big outfit might notice.
Stephen Arnold, June 22, 2009
Twitter Tools
June 22, 2009
Now that outfits like the New York Times and CNN have concluded that Twitter is useful when reporting certain events, the Social Media Guide’s round up of Twitter tools may find some use in the newsroom. The round up “The Ultimate List of Twitter Tools” is long, grouped, and quite good. Highly recommended for dinosaurs and new forms of sentient information life. A reminder: there are other sources of real time info as well. Keep those options open, the addled goose honks.
Stephen Arnold, June 22, 2009
Collecta Real Time Search
June 20, 2009
Scoopler, OneRiot, ITPints, and others in the real time search space have more competition. I received information directly from a PR firm, but the message pitched OneRiot, using Collecta in the subject line to grab my attention. Sigh. I checked out Collecta, and it seems to use XMPP, a protocol enlisted by the Google for its Wave demo. (Anthony Ha’s “Collecta Says It’s the Fastest Contender in the Real-Time Search Race” for Venture Beat is a useful overview.) The system asserts that it indexes Web sites along with Twitter and RSS feeds. You can set up a “river” of hits on a topic which I found useful. Worth taking a closer look.
Stephen Arnold, June 20, 2009
Overflight on Treatment Centers
June 16, 2009
The Overflight intelligence service provides drug rehabilitation information for Treatment Centers. Treatment Centers is an information service for health care providers and families looking for actionable information about a dependency condition. The new service provides access to selected information from the Treatment Centers database as well as information that is refreshed in real time from a range of sources. Included is information from Web logs, major news services, and Twitter. Stephen E. Arnold, provider of the Overflight service, said:
The Twitter information was a surprise. We ran several tests and found that Twitter messages provided useful links as well as specific recommendations about what resources were found to be useful. The Twitter information is filtered, eliminating the need to run key word queries, so real time content is available without the need to visit the search box. The combination of original information from the Treatment Center professionals and the real time information creates a useful resource available with a single mouse click.
There is no charge for the service at http://www.treatment-centers.net/drug-rehab.html. If you want an Overflight service for your Web site, write seaky2000 at yahoo dot com and put “Overflight” in the subject field. Users find auto generated reports useful because information is available at a glance without the need to create a key word query to unlock the needed information.
Stuart Schram IV, June 16, 2009
Twitter and Iran Coverage
June 16, 2009
Despite the yip yap about the future of Twitter and its general uselessness, the little service that could provided some information about the hoe down in Iran. Seems to me that traditional media faced some challenges, so those with knowledge of Twitter were able to send out news bullets in 140 character packets. Useful that. You can read the CBC’s take on the Tweets in its June 15 story “Twitter Emerges as News source during Iran Media Crackdown”. For me the most interesting comment in the report was:
Citizenlab, which runs out of the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies, is one of many groups making software available that allows citizens in Iran to sign on to a server that gives them secure access to web pages anywhere, bypassing government restrictions. The software, PsiPhon, has been made available for Twitter users, as the social messaging tool has taken centre stage as a source of news from Iran since Saturday.
Is the information as “good” as that available from Fox News or the estimable CNN? I don’t know. But I much prefer seeing a stream and making my own decisions about what seems to cooking. I sure couldn’t locate timely info on the mainstream media sites. Twitter may not be the top rated news site in the pantheon of info giants, but I think it was useful and showed its potential.
Stephen Arnold, June 16, 2009
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