Microsoft and Facebook: More Pain for the Google
June 3, 2011
In the latest shot across the bow in the war between Microsoft and Google, Wired is reporting that “Bing Bumps Facebook Options to Outsocial Google.”
Now, “when you search Bing after associating your Bing account and Facebook accounts, you’ll see more faces of your friends.” “Microsoft, a minority shareholder in Facebook, is betting that data from Facebook will make its search superior to Google’s dominant search engine.”
ZDNet’s “Bing Adds More Facebook Features to Social Search” details five Facebook-related Bing updates, which include shared shopping lists and expanded Facebook profile searching. The write up asserts:
“Microsoft data shows that nearly half of people say seeing their friend’s Likes within search results could help them make better decisions.”
It’s interesting to consider all this information sharing in the context of crowd wisdom. In our opinion, the real point of these innovations is to keep Google looking at tail lights in the race to social content’s 24 hour hamburger joint.
Rita Safranek, June 3, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
OpenText Gets More Social
May 31, 2011
OpenText is dedicated to helping businesses get the most from their content. The company helps clients clearly pave out clear business goals so they can provide them with the enterprise technology services they need to support their various programs and departments. According to the Business Insider article “How OpenText Uses Social Media” Greg Second, vice president of investor relations at OpenText opened up about their new role for social media. He stated that:
“All staff especially management members are encouraged to use social media to ‘reach out’ to their customers and people in the industry.”
The popularity of social media makes it a great tool to communicate with the public but analysts, portfolio managers and others in the field are more interested in the comments of the employees in order to get a better understanding of the industry. Sounds like a great tool but with so few details, one must wonder if it ever lived up to the hype. We are, however, wary of categorical affirmatives. That “all” surely does not mean everyone?
Stephen E Arnold, May 31, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
Bing Adds Facebook Recommendations
May 26, 2011
We learned from AdAgeDigital that “Bing Adds Facebook Recommendations to Search.” It seems that Microsoft is tapping social search to aid in its continuing struggle to out do Google in search. Our concern is that search is a little “yesterday” and its troubles seem so far away. I use social information services to locate information. Don’t you?
Here’s what social search will look like on Bing, according to AdAge:
The updated service will incorporate data from the largest social network, which has become a key arbiter of content on the web. For example, a user logged into Facebook searching for news on Bing would see links to articles that a friend may have liked. People searching for generic terms, such as “cooking,” might see recipes their Facebook friends have anointed with a ‘like.’ Where a person’s Facebook friends have not sounded off on a particular search term, they would see the most popular links from the collective Facebook community, redefining search altogether.
Google, naturally, has responded by also adding social recommendations it its results. Microsoft, though, has a distinct advantage: a positive relationship with Facebook. It will be impossible for Google to surpass Bing in this arena if it can’t get a hold of data from the social media giant.
Traditional search returns noise. One person used the phrase “information glare” to describe what happens when I run a query on Bing or Google. The information blinds me. I need a way to get what I need. Maybe Bing is moving in the right direction.
What’s clear is that Facebook has momentum? Does Mr. Zuckerberg’s service provide users with information sunglasses? I like the style.
Cynthia Murrell, May 26, 2011
Censorship: The New “Like”
May 26, 2011
We find the machinations of US companies and China’s bureaucracy fascinating. Google stubbed its toe on the Great Wall. Yahoo found itself wading in the goo on the marge of the Bund. Has Facebook found a way to avoid missteps and tap into the money flow of one of the world’s largest economies?
“Durban Writes China’s Largest Search Engine about Web Censorship, Possible Facebook Deal,” declares a press release from the office of Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL). Regarding the rumored deal with Facebook. We learned:
Durbin expressed particular concern about recent reports that Baidu may enter into a partnership with Facebook to launch a social-networking site in China. Durbin has previously written to Facebook regarding his concern that the company does not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent repressive governments from monitoring activists who use Facebook. In his letter, Durbin asked Baidu whether it plans to partner with Facebook, and, if so, what steps the companies will take to protect human rights.
It’s interesting that a politician is weighing in on the matter. It remains to be seen whether he’ll get anywhere with his protestations.
It’s also interesting, to us at least, that in this instance Google is on the outside looking in. As if that rivalry needed more fodder!
We also want to note that, if the rumor is true, this is a potentially huge windfall for Facebook. Now that US politicians are voicing their views, will that put a stick in the Facebook bicycle spokes?
Cynthia Murrell May 26, 2011
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Paging Doctor Firefox
May 26, 2011
The fastest way to turn a common headache into a brain tumor is to investigate symptoms on WebMD. Apparently, this is not dissuading internet users from slapping a white coat and stethoscope onto their computers. “Pew Finds One in Four Track Their Health Information Online” provides more insight into just how engaged individuals are with online health info and the art of self-diagnosis.
We learned from the write up some interesting factoids based on a sample of 3,001 Americans:
- One in four Internet users are starting to track their own health information—including blood pressure, symptoms, diet, blood sugar levels and exercise routine—online
- 80 percent of Internet users, or 59 percent of all adults, have researched health topics online, and 34 percent have read about health online on a newsgroup, Website or blog
- One in three caregivers use the Internet to look up drug reviews
- Internet users with chronic conditions such as diabetes or hypertension are also more likely to look up health information
The driving force seems to be “feedback loops”. A rough analogy to using a social network to get information about a condition. My mother talked to the neighbors over the back yard fence. Now online communities perform a similar function.
If accurate, these data may be that asking a “friend” provides a measuring stick for others with similar issues. An example from the article details that using loops for obtaining information can be effective in explaining why two donuts for breakfast today and result in clogged arteries tomorrow.
We are relived to see the results don’t yet indicate that individuals are entering health data into the cyberspace, only searching for information. And there is a disclaimer, stating that “although Americans are seeking support and feedback from peers online, they mainly consult with their physician’s offline.”
I’ve coincidentally come down with the same respiratory infection a good contingent of the city is suffering from now, and as tempting as it is to trust the blogosphere and the halls of online forums, I think I will instead be paying a visit to my doctor this afternoon. For now, no Dr. Facebook or Dr. Google for me.
Sarah Rogers, May 26, 2011
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Protected: SharePoint Users Are All About Going Social
May 20, 2011
New Landscape of Enterprise Search Details Available
May 18, 2011
Stephen E Arnold’s new report about enterprise search will be shipping in two weeks. The New Landscape of Enterprise Search: A Critical Review of the Market and Search Systems provides a fresh perspective on a fascinating enterprise application.
The centerpiece of the report are new analyses of search and retrieval systems offered by:
Unlike the “pay to play” analyses from industry consultant and self-appointed “experts,” Mr. Arnold’s approach is based on his work in developing search systems and researching search systems to support certain inquiries into systems’ performance and features.
, to focus on the broad changes which have roiled the enterprise search and content processing market. Unlike his first “encyclopedia” of search systems and his study of value added indexing systems, this new report takes an unvarnished look at the business and financial factors that make enterprise search a challenge. Then he uses a historical base to analyze the upsides and downsides of six vendors’ search solutions. He puts the firm’s particular technical characteristics in sharp relief. A reader gains a richer understanding of what makes a particular vendor’s system best suited for specific information access applications.
Other features of the report include:
- Diagrams of system architecture and screen shots of exemplary implementations
- Lists of resellers and partners of the profiled vendors
- A comprehensive glossary which attempts to cut through the jargon and marketing baloney which impedes communication about search and retrieval
- A ready-reference table for more than 20 vendors’ enterprise search solutions
- An “outlook” section which offers candid observations about the attrition and financial health of the hundreds of companies offering search solutions.
More information about the report is available at http://goo.gl/0vSql. You may reserve your copy by writing seaky2000 @ yahoo dot com. Full ordering information and pricing will be available in the near future.
Donald C Anderson, May 18, 2011
Post paid for by Stephen E Arnold
Search, Sharing, and a Shift in Content
May 18, 2011
Sharing is caring, and Digital Inspiration’s “How People Share Content Online and with Whom?” has the numbers to prove it.
When folks want to share content with friends, 92 percent use social networks. When it comes to family, that number dips to 76 percent. Other popular ways of sharing content with friends and family are via e-mail and blogs.
So the survey begs the question, why search when you can quickly and easily ask your friends and family – people you know and trust? The implications for Google should not be underestimated. It isn’t enough to be a search engine anymore. How far behind Facebook is Google. You be the judge. Here are five Google social media efforts as noted in March 2010 by TopRank’s “Google the Social Media Company”: Google Social Search, Google Buzz, Twitter and Facebook feeds in search results, various social acquisitions, and Google Wave. The clock is ticking as market and mind share slips away.
What’s this mean? Brute force search is not likely to work in this new information sharing space.
Rita Safranek, May 18, 2011
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Facebook to Skype Google
May 5, 2011
If true, Facebook is going to Skype the GOOG. Annoying? Not to me. To Google? On the surface, nah. Inside the Google cubicles? You bet. You can read “Facebook Buying Out Skype? $4 Billion Deal Being Talked About” and decide for yourself if the story is on the money. The story asserts:
By the way, if you are looking at going into what the $4 billion ‘possible’ takeover would bring to Skype, let us also take you to a situation where Skype had been mulling over an IPO. If you would remember, the Skype IPO was recently delayed by its new CEO until the second half of 2011. And that public offer would have brought to the Skype coffers only around $1 billion. Considering such a scene, the Facebook move, if at all that bears fruit, could mean a lot to Skype. We also hear Google too is looking at a venture with Skype. More details are awaited.
I will “await”. But with display ads humming along, lots of stateful users who spend hours being social, and now the Skype phone and video conference plus message thing. Wow. If the deal goes down, Google has to do some fancy dancing at this ice cream social.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2011
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Open Source Continues Forward
May 3, 2011
In the programming world open source continues to showcase its dominance. According to the InfoWorld article “Open Source Programming Tools On the Rise,” open source programs are a definite industry favorite. We learned from the article:
“The reason is clear: Open source licenses are designed to allow users to revise, fix, and extend their code.”
Programmers can change the program to fit their specific needs. Usage of open source tools such as Hadoop and Firebug continue to rise in the programming world as users find new and innovative ways to use the technology. Open source programs even older ones continue to have longevity because users can “Tweak and recompile, and your old programming tool can be new again.” The open source program Lucene/Solr is a popular high performance index and search platform that has proved to be quite impressive. It will be interesting to see if open source can be “dethroned.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 3, 2011
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