Googzilla and the Ice Cream Social
June 28, 2011
Hot summer days in Illinois spawned a weird event. Churches would organize what was called an “ice cream social.” My great grandmother called the events “ice cream parties.” The idea was to use ice cream as a reason to get together. In addition to ice cream, I recall cookies, cakes, sticky things called brownies, and other confections I never tasted. These “confections” melted as quickly as the ice cream. Kids ran around making noise. Everyone else talked and slurped ice cream. I hated the darned events. I wanted ice cream in a cup sitting alone with a book.
Here are the features of the ice cream social:
- Seemed like fun but it was summer and the ice cream was messy. The reality of the event was different from the old time posters with quaint lettering and the hype about the event.
- There were lots of things on offer. Ice cream was supposed to be the big deal but whether from fear, doubt, or the need for fat, butter, and sugar, there was a lot of Twinkie grade junk food available
- The talk and chatter was less meaningful than a conversation and a heck of a lot more public that a barbeque with a more select group of invitees
- Not much happened. I recall the build up and preparation were more important than the event itself. I slipped away quickly so maybe the social were rocking and rolling.
- Adults still drank beer, cursed, and went to bars, so the “social” stuff did not have traction or what today is called “stickiness”.
Why bring up a church ice cream social? I learned about Google’s 2011 social service called Google+. Now that’s a heck of a name because the + is also a Google search operator. Maybe search is really a gone goose at Google? But that’s a thought for another blog post. I found the insider story in Wired interesting. Navigate to “Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social”, and you can get a good run down of the angst and excitement of the giant effort Google+ represents. There are powerful metaphors like “bet the company” and references to “fear.” Great stuff because the founders are behind the service. There are pronouncements like search is organized around people. Okay. I buy that.
I just can’t shake the ice cream social thought. The run up seems similar to what my mother did with her “spark plug friends”; that is, planning, cooking, stirring, and phone calling to coordinate. Nevertheless, the stuff she cooked was ill suited to the hot summer day. The main feature—the ice cream—was a disappointment. Try slurping a semi soft scoop of vanilla on a 95 degree day adjacent a corn field chock full of hungry critters. The insects got more ice cream than I did and what was left melted and ran down my hands.The social part was forced. When I was older, the social action in the local college hang out was more directed than the dances with melting chocolate coconut bars. Maybe it was the booze, but the cocktail lounge “social” was the real thing, not the namby pamby gig my mother and her friends cranked out.
Will Google move from the ice cream social metaphor to the throbbing base and clink of glasses filled with booze, not Shirley Temples? My hunch is that Google will be okay with this service, but okay may not do the job on good old Facebook. Facebook has some crazy stickiness. Facebook has some crazy problems. Facebook has 20 percent of its staff with Google on its résumés. Facebook has a walled garden and a raft of advertising options. Did I mention the user base? That is important, but Google can make inroads.
My view is that Google is now focusing on social and Android. What about poor old search? Is the field open for Yandex to move into a sector while the leader is betting the company on some other services? What about the enterprise initiative? That seems to be distant from the center of gravity at Google. What about products and services that are shut down or left dangling in the wind? Google Health, Translate APIs, poor, poor Knol—you get the idea.
Googzilla had a shot with Orkut. That was about seven years ago. The wheel is turning: Google has a portal. Google is doing me-too products. Google is betting the company. Like the ice cream socials I recall, the event is less than the build up. I hope the GOOG makes Google+ a success. Googzilla goes social. Could be a book title.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2011
From the leader in next-generation analysis of search and content processing, Beyond Search.
DC Bar Method: An Exercise in Social Media Success
June 27, 2011
Interest in investment opportunities is rising. Traditional financial instruments are uncertain. Bonds, once the pride and joy of grandfathers and grandmothers, are a source of worry. Bond now triggers associations with default, particularly in some beleagured US cities.
In Washington, DC, a young entrepreneur, Kate Arnold, have found an investment upside in a business that combines old fashioned personal service with next generation social media marketing.
The duo have opened a specialized, “no impact” exercise studio. The Bar Method eliminates the risks associated with free weights and some types of machine-assisted exercise. I recall seeing members in air casts after an encounter with one device designed for young athletes, not those over the age of 40.
The owners have blended Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and other methods into the run up for the grand opening of the exercise studio.
Take this test. Navigate to the firm’s Web site at http://dc.barmethod.com/. Explore the information. Then run queries for the business on Facebook. We experimented with a number of services and had zero difficulty locating the facility.
I asked one of the owners of the new facility about the firm’s marketing approach. Kate Arnold said:
We understand how the search engines like Bing and Google find information. We took extra care to make sure that we used Tumblr as a way to build buzz among the community of health conscious professionals in Washington, DC. When the studio took its final form, we opened up the messaging across a number of social channels. The key to our success with social media is not dependent on technology. We focused on personal and online relationships. The response has been remarkable.
If you are interested in social media marketing that also embraces findability in the major Web search systems, drop by the facility at 750 9th Street NW, Washington DC 20001, in the heart of DC.
Classes are available from 6 15 am to 7 15 pm, Eastern time. You may participate on a class on a walk in or member basis.
The Harrod’s Creek goslings definitely need tutoring in social media, and most of us can benefit from “the most targeted body sculpting workout.”
Don C Anderson, June 27, 2011
Stephen E and Kay S Arnold sponsored this post. Some do NPR. We do health and www.theseed2020.com
Tibco: Creeping into Social Content Territories
June 27, 2011
MarketWire’s “TIBCO Announces Enterprise Social Computing Launch Event for tibbr 3.0” details the coming-out party for the third generation of TIBCO Software’s enterprise social computing platform.
With the upgrade, the infrastructure company continues to expand its presence beyond content processing and into the hot social computing segment. The article asserts:
“Tibbr builds on TIBCO’s decades of experience in linking enterprise software systems, and connects not just people, but also systems, processes, applications, and subjects and makes them part of the conversation.
While many companies are capable of imitating the Facebook model of social computing, they lack TIBCO’s strong enterprise roots, making the company’s solution one to watch. It’ll be very interesting to see this new version of tibbr.
When I visited TIBCO for the first time, I was interested to see a number of servers in the TIBCO facility in Palo Alto, California, sporting happy Yahoo logos. At that time, TIBCO was hosting some of Yahoo’s services. In the last five years, TIBCO has continued to grow. The company is much more than a provider of plumbing to financial institutions.
The push into social functions should serve as a flashing light to search and cotnent processing vendors who have an eye on the types of customers TIBCO serves. Search may be a utility. TIBCO operates the information grid in which a utility snaps.
Stephen E Arnold, June 27, 2011
You can read more about enterprise search and retrieval in The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, published my Pandia in Oslo, Norway, in June 2011.
Protected: Focus on the User in SharePoint Implementation
June 27, 2011
Protected: Making SharePoint More Social
June 23, 2011
SharePoint: Is The Dorian Gray Effect in Play?
June 21, 2011
“Is the SharePoint Community Past Its Prime?” sparked some discussion at Search Technologies. Our firm works with a number of search and content processing systems. We find that no single system is perfect and that most search systems can deliver significant return on investment to their licensees.
The article by the SharePoint Hillbilly raised several questions. Although the author’s focus was on Microsoft SharePoint, the implications of the author’s argument resonate across the search landscape.
The jumping off point for the article was an analysis of Microsoft’s role in the SharePoint community. In this case, “community” refers to the developers (certified and uncertified) who manage SharePoint installations, develop add-ins and add-ons for SharePoint, or support SharePoint implementations with management or engineering services.
With the rapid uptake of SharePoint, the SharePoint community has grown rapidly. Growth brings both challenges and opportunities. Among the challenges the SharePoint community faces are:
- Ego collisions
- Conference exhaustion
- Microsoft.
The issue in the article is not that SharePoint is unique. In our experience, user groups have been an important part of most major software companies marketing. The Dorian Gray effect is that the user group ages rapidly, often passing through a complete life cycle quickly and then fades away. I suppose there are some stalwarts from the DEC 20 user group that once met every month in Washington, DC, but the action has shifted.
The question becomes, “How can a community of those actively involved in a particular enterprise system maintain the freshness and excitement of the pre-gray hair stage of life. The answer is, “User groups cannot.”
The community begins with a handful of people, expands, and then shrinks. Email, LinkedIn, and other types of communication methods make it possible for those who want to be involved and stay connected can. However, the buzz of the face-to-face meetings, coding sessions, and heated arguments about the best way to accomplish a specific task mellow and often fade away.
The author says:
I want the SharePoint community to stay strong and inviting and growing. I don’t want the cracks I see to start causing division and fracture the community. I don’t want to see SharePoint Sundays pop-up because they don’t want to be associated with those Saturday guys. So I blog… I shout to the wind… and have a SharePint… or three…
We agree. However, the task is not to preserve the community around SharePoint, Autonomy IDOL, or Exalead CloudView, among others. The job is to recognize that individuals, consulting firms, third party developers, and even the “owner” of the enterprise software system form an interdependent ecosystem. The “community” is one part of that ecosystem.
At Search Technologies, we participate in multiple user groups. Some are relatively small and fast growing. Others are mature and shrinking. Our professionals are encouraged to participate, and we make an effort to monitor many groups which we are unable to attend.
The reason is simple: We think that the knowledge we gain from these interactions makes us better and more informed problem solvers. Furthermore, we think that our active participation in user groups contributes to our success. Some software systems fade away, but the value of the personal relationships continues.
Point your browser at www.searchtechnologies.com to learn more about our company and our services. We can help companies gain a business advantage from search applications. Alternatively, look for us at your next user group event, on LinkedIn, or at a conference.
There is no Dorian Gray effect if you remain active. Time is reversed with engagement and continuous learning.
Iain Fletcher, June 21, 2011
Search Technologies
Polyspot Connectors
June 21, 2011
PolySpot asserts that it has become the “go to” company for information retrieval solutions for companies.
According to the PolySpot Web Site, the company offers:
a modular solution for designing all types of applications research and implement a true transverse research infrastructure, meeting the needs of all company’s business. “PolySpot depends on a number of connectors for “interfacing solutions with a large number of applications.”
The Web Page “List of Connectors PolySpot” located on the PolySpot Web Site provides a detailed list of connectors they utilize to access comprehensive data as well as the metadata of various applications.
What is interesting is that Polyspot is embracing social media. The social content connectors play a role in the firm’s product development since the management reshuffle.
Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and MediaWiki are popping up everywhere and their influence continues to grow. Polyspot wants to make these sites’ content available to its licensees.
The fact that PolySpot uses information from these sites to design research and search solutions for businesses demonstrates how powerful and important social sites have become. Who knew simple terms such as “like or dislike” could pack such a punch.
April Holmes, June 21, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Google Gobbles Social Sardine PostRank
June 17, 2011
Google is obviously making an effort to kick its social capabilities into gear.
Business Insider announces that “Google Snaps Up Company That Tracks How Social Messages Spread.”
Will Google use a lethal kung fu move against Facebook with PostRank or just a Silicon Valley “royal wave”?
PostRank is the third such purchase this quarter, following the acquisition of PushLife in April and Sparkbuy just last week. Regarding the newest members of the Google family, writer Matt Rosoff reports,
PostRank [is] a small Canadian company that helps companies figure out how far social messages like tweets and Facebook updates spread across the Web. PostRank has a couple dozen employees, reports TechCrunch, and all of them are moving from Waterloo, Ontario — home of Research in Motion — to Google’s Mountain View headquarters.
The parties remain mum on what they will be working on in their new digs, but we suppose it might have something to do with Google’s ever-intensifying competition with Facebook.
Is Google buying talent, technology, or both? With Facebook facing some new challenges, Google may have a chance to strike a surgical blow. Will Google use a touch of death (Dian Xue) or a gentle wave like the one the British royals have perfected?
Cynthia Murrell June 9, 2011
Slapping Facebook and Muting At Work Users
June 9, 2011
Have workplace bans on technology ever been effective? In “Half of UK Businesses Ban Social Media at Work,” The Next Women business magazine examines the issue.
A study of 2,500 UK businesses found that “48% ban their workers from posting updates on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.” While employers may claim they are worried about protecting sensitive information or employees writing detrimental things about the company, “it’s the seamless integration between work and social media that is really concerning companies.”
How do you craft a policy that allows employees to use their smart phones for calls and e-mails but bans social networking? And who’s going to enforce it? This kind of negative management is never going to be considered a best practice.
Our view is that when 20 somethings join a “real” organization, the organization is going to have to work overtime to curtail what the 20 somethings perceive as normal behavior. Can organizations slap Facebook and mute its users at work? Good luck with that.
What happens if the hot new hire who cost a bonus, a new auto as an inducement, and a big salary takes a hike over a muting policy? Expensive for sure.
Stephen E Arnold, June 9, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Web Search: Picking Sides from the Bleachers
June 5, 2011
One of the interesting characteristics of fans is that shouts can inspire athletes in the game. Here is rural Kentucky, fans can focus on one another. Instead of the usually Southern civility, shouting matches or fisticuffs can break out. The players continue playing as the “game within the game” unfolds.
Fans cheer but whether noise alters the outcome of the game is a matter for a PhD dissertation, not a job, though.
The Gold Team
I read “How Facebook Can Put Google Out of Business.” The write up takes a premise set up by Googler Eric Schmidt, who until recently, was the CEO of the company. The PR-inspired mea culpa positioned Mr. Schmidt as the person who was responsible for Google’s failures in social media. Even before Orkut in 2003, I recall seeing references to social functions in Google’s patent documents prior to Google’s purchase of Orkut and its quite interesting trajectory. As you may know, the path wandered through a legal thicket, toured the more risk filled environs of Brazil, and ended up parked next to the railroad tracks near the Googleplex in Mountain View.
The TechCrunch article pointed out that Facebook has detailed information about its 500 or 600 million “members”. The idea is that Facebook can leverage the information about these members’ in order to create a more compelling “finding” system.
I suppose I can nitpick about the write up, but it presents information that I have touched upon in this Web log for a couple of years. When I read the article, my reaction was, “I thought everyone already knew this.”
The Blue Team
Then I read “The Silliest Idea Ever: Facebook Going After Google In Search.” This write up used a rhetorical technique that I have long employed; namely, taking a contrary position in order to highlight certain features of an issue. In my experience, the approach annoys 30 somethings who have memorized an elevator pitch and want to get back to Call of Duty or their iPhone. However, I enjoy the intellectual exercise and will continue the practice.
The main premise of the “Silliest Idea Ever” is that competing with Google in search is expensive, Google is a moving target, and other types of disruption will influence what happens between Google and Facebook in search. You should read the original write up to get the full freight of meaning.
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