Europe’s Answer to Google Books Gets an F
November 21, 2008
I wrote that only a country can challenge Google. The company’s unprecedented 10 year run through online has been largely unchallenged. In the present economic climate, I don’t think the resources are available to out Google Google. The European Union, however, tried. According to Wired here, “Europe’s answer to Google Book Search officially launched Thursday after two years of prep — and promptly crashed.” First the collider suffered a multi million euro glitch and now Europeana nukes itself. The Google alternative experienced heavy traffic and choked. At some point, folks will take a look at Google’s engineering and try to replicate it. The notion that “our servers can handle the load” is time and again proven a fantasy statement. Google’s been working on its system for a decade and continues to invest in plumbing. Now I am not even sure a country can knock off Google. Google is tough to understand, hard to regulate, and now sailing serenely along without a significant competitor to one of its interesting but minor initiatives. The debate over Google as good or evil is essentially irrelevant. The focus has to shift to build businesses on what is now the computing platform for the foreseeable future.
Stephen Arnold, November 21, 2008
Google Version 2.0 in Research and Markets Catalog
November 19, 2008
The “world’s largest market research resource” is now reselling the 2007 study Google Version 2.0. You can read Research and Markets’ profile of the study, examine a sample of the 250 page report, and review the table of contents here. In the last six months, interest in this analysis of Google’s technology has spiked. If you have an interest in the technical underpinning for some of the services Google has recently launched, you will find this study a useful resource. The information in the study comes from Google open source publications; for example, patent documents and technical papers. In addition to the discussion of the nuts and bolts of Google’s hottest and most suggestive technologies, the book describes the business implications of these technologies. Google does not commercialize its many inventions, but it is important to think about Google’s technical capabilities in a broader context than a purely engineering frame. The information in the study is more germane to today’s Google because the GOOG has been expanding its services and products at an increasingly rapid rate into markets adjacent to core Web search and advertising.
Stephen Arnold, November 2008
Google Apps: Schools as an Enterprise
November 19, 2008
Microsoft is using SharePoint as a digital Maginot Line in the enterprise. Google seems to be content to move forward incrementally in the enterprise. When the phone rings, Google gets a partner to answer it, and the approach seems to be working. You will want to read the ZDNet blog article “Is There Anything Teachers or Students Need That Google Apps Can’t Do?” here. The writer is Christopher Dawson and he presents some compelling reasons for a school to consider using Google instead of PCs or Macs. Geese are not good student, so I don’t know too much about education. I do know that schools with networked personal computers are in a world of hurt. The systems often don’t work and when they work, teachers are not sufficiently computer literate to use the devices as much more than bright typewriters. Apple and Microsoft have viewed schools as a viable market. If not today, then when the students get some cash, the users will be hooked on the system used in school. Now Google is playing this demographic angle. Judging from the ZDNet blog article, Google’s tactic is working. Cost, not features and cloud computing goodness, is the reason. Schools will find it is cheaper to just let Google do it. If Google becomes the next big thing in school computing, the longer term implications for Google’s competitors may warrant corrective action sooner rather than later.
Stephen Arnold, November 19, 2008
More on SharePoint in the Cloud
November 18, 2008
Mary-Joe Foley, author of Microsoft 2.0, wrote “What Does SharePoint in the Cloud Mean?” This is a good Web log post. For me the most important part of the write up is the table that shows what SharePoint in the cloud will deliver. To summarize her post is easy. I would just say, “Not much.” Ms. Foley wrote:
For some users, this stripped-down feature set is no doubt worth the cost savings. Others — who aren’t ready to entrust Microsoft (or any cloud vendor, for that matter) with their data — or who need all the functionality in Exchange, SharePoint, etc., will stick with the software-only versions of these products.
Everyone is quite gentle when talking about SharePoint. Microsoft is a big company and it can be vindictive I suppose. At some point, the SharePoint craze may wane and reality set in. I am not sure when customers will realize that hosted SharePoint delivers only a few functions. On premises SharePoint delivers a steady flow of certified engineers.
Stephen Arnold, November 19, 2008
Autonomy: An Interview with Andrew Kanter
November 18, 2008
Andrew Kanter is the chief operating officer of Autonomy, a vendor of enterprise infrastructure and content processing systems, participated in the Search Wizards Speak series. Mr. Kanter addressed a number of topics in this wide ranging discussing, including the firm’s “meaning based computing” technology and the company’s move into cloud computing and hosted services. Autonomy was founded in 1996, but the company has been at the forefront of advanced content processing for more than a decade. Some analysts peg Autonomy as the world’s largest vendor of search systems in the world. The firm’s system is described as a “pan enterprise search platform” and incorporates technology that handles content automatically via the firm’s intelligent data operating layer or IDOL system.
Mr. Kanter said about the tough financial climate that is burdening some information system vendors:
Autonomy has closed some of the biggest deals in our history in recent months, reaching to $20 million, $70 million and more. These companies themselves often don’t know what’s happening within their own walls until it’s too late. In some ways it’s a sad truth but there is always going to be a demand for this type of [Autonomy] solution, whatever happens to the macroeconomic climate.
Mr. Kanter also talked about Autonomy’s ability to index audio and video content which is proliferating at some organizations. He said:
These days it’s very rare that we have a purely text-centric installation because we naturally communicate as human beings through rich forms of information such as voice and video. Autonomy’s IDOL is at the heart of our Autonomy Virage technology, applying the same conceptual analysis to audio and video content as to text. Further, even if demand today is only for text, most enterprises want to have the capability of including audio and video at a later date. They are bringing into their systems conference calls, webinars and other rich media content. In fact, we are seeing an increase in customers using our Autonomy Virage rich media solutions across all verticals. The strength of the platform approach is enable the architecture to evolve to accommodate the enterprise’s changing needs, without having to rip everything out.
You can read the complete interview with Mr. Kanter on the ArnoldIT.com Web site. Navigate to http://www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak/ or click here to access the interview directly.
Stephen Arnold, November 18, 2008
Prices for First Microsoft Cloud Services
November 16, 2008
Update November 18, 2008 More cloud pricing here.
InfoWorld reported that some Microsoft cloud services will be available on Monday, November 17, 2008. You can read “Microsoft to Launch Online SharePoint, Exchange on Monday” here. The article does not address who is eligible to buy, the minimum purchase, or how this service will fit into certified partners’ hosted offerings. I continue to be skeptical about the manageability of hosted SharePoint and its performance. You may be a SharePoint fan, but I am firmly on the fence because the costs associated with getting the darn thing to deliver on the marketing promises are too rich for some of my customers. In my opinion, the most interesting part of this InfoWorld article is not the absence of answers to my questions. The pricing is quite aggressive; for example:
- Office Communications, $15 per user per month
- Hosted Exchange, $10 per user per month
- SharePoint, $7.25 per user per month.
My reaction is that Microsoft wants to snag as much cloud market share as possible and put pricing pressure on anyone who cares to challenge the $65 billion giant. Google will have its paws full. Amazon has already introduced its Windows service. Salesforce.com has pointed out some of the challenges Microsoft faces. We’ll see soon enough.
What I want to see is a hosted Microsoft Fast search system that handles billions of documents.
Stephen Arnold, November 16, 2008
Google Docs: An Enterprise Laggard
November 15, 2008
Forbes Magazine, the business publication with the editorial to ad ratios that made Bill Ziff giggle with glee, published “Study Finds Google Docs Struggles to Gain Foothold in Productivity Suite Market”. This is not really an Forbes story; it is a Forbes reprint of Business Wire news release. Nevertheless, you will want to take a quick look at the document here. I am learning to look closely at the urls and the disclaimers on some high profile Web sites. The content says “Forbes” but the information is often unusual. In September 2008 I was in the audience when a Googler reported strong uptake for Google Apps and Google Docs. I wrote about the New South Wales’s deal with Google for putting Google services in the hands of school children. I heard a rumor that on busy days, Google Apps was enjoying sign ups in the 3,000 every 24 hours. Google’s enterprise initiatives have been sufficiently robust to disrupt some enterprise search vendors and cause Microsoft to knee jerk its way into cloud services.
The news story reveals that:
Google Docs (a web-based application) was the 2nd most popular free productivity app, used by 1% of users. Google docs also had the lightest use of all productivity apps, with an average of 40 actions performed in the app (compare with 548 in OpenOffice and 1,797 in Microsoft Word), and the fewest average days used during the 6-month period.
I am not sure I follow the data but I think the GOOG is actually doing okay, not exactly what the headline and word “struggles” suggests. So who wrote this study? ClickStream Technologies. This is neither good nor bad in my opinion, but I have two questions: [a] Is Forbes endorsing this study or just earning some extra money recycling content? and [b] Why is this study negative towards Google? I don’t have answers to these questions. In our own work, we try to be clear, and I found the data in the story pretty confusing to an old goose like me.
Stephen Arnold, November 15, 2008
A Bad Economy May Boost Google
November 15, 2008
Garett Rogers is an analyst who can join my flock anytime. His “Worsening Economy Could Actually Help Google” takes a different view of how the GOOG will fare in the present economic climate. He wrote on November 13, 2008, in a ZDNet Web log here:
One major expense (and headache) for small, medium and large businesses are licensing fees for things like Microsoft Exchange, Share Point, Office, etc. As costs are being cut, these Microsoft products may well go on the chopping block with Google being the cheaper (or free) alternative.
The idea is that as organizations seek to reduce costs Google’s cloud services will become more and more appealing. I agree. The infrastructure costs that some organizations are now making in cloud computing are going to be an additional burden. Google continues to invest, but the company has the plumbing in place. If my analyses are accurate, Google could trim its infrastructure investment without great risk to its present lead in data centers and back end services.
The real plus for Google is that the company spends comparatively little on marketing. Granted, the company’s sales and marketing operations are not the well oiled machines one sees running for consumer products. But the market demand for things Google seems to be chugging along. Google has some operating cost advantages as well. In short, I agree with Mr. Rogers. Quack!
Stephen Arnold, November 15, 2008
Chrome: Caesar or Napolean
November 13, 2008
I enjoy Datawocky, a Web log written by a Google observer. The most recent post is “Google Chrome: A Masterstroke or a Blunder?” You can read the full text of the essay here. My take away from the September 7, 2008, write up changed over time. When I first read the essay, I thought it was quite balanced. I revisited the article today as I was preparing to write my KMWorld column. On the second pass, this passage caught my eye:
Two striking historical parallels come to mind, one a masterstroke and the other a blunder, in both cases setting into motion events that could not be undone. In 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army, triggering a civil war where he triumphed over the forces of Pompey and became the master of Rome. And in 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte had Europe at his feet when he made the fateful decision to invade Russia, greatly weakening his power and leading ultimately to his defeat at Waterloo. It will be interesting to see whether Chrome ends up being Google’s Rubicon or its St. Petersburg.
The historical parallel on my second reading struck me as odd. Arrogance, pride, and confidence in power brought about the downfall of both Caesar and Napoleon. Both leaders ended their lives in nasty circumstances. Furhtermore the aftermath of both leaders’ lives was continued momentum for their policies.
What does this have to do with Chrome? I think Chrome is one piece of the Google technology puzzle. It is a bold play to allow Google access to information of many types. Once in Chrome, a user cannot easily determine what is Google and what is some other service. In fact, when one navigates to another Web page is it necessary for Google to hand off that user? Google can easily serve some information from its cache. Google could become the Internet for a Chrome user or for a Google phone user.
Please read the Datawocky essay. Let me know if you think the distinction between Caesar and Napoleon is a valid one? Then let me know if you think Chrome is a browser or just the front end to a Google-intermediated Internet.
Stephen Arnold, November 13, 2008
TrackVia: Redefining the Online Database Query
November 12, 2008
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to “TrackVia: Powerful Search Tool for All the Nooks and Crannies.” You can read the full text of the article by Jack Germain here. Mr. Germain provides quite a bit of detail about his experience with this hosted service. I navigated to the TrackVia Web site here in search of some basic information about an outfit of which I had never heard. After you read Mr. Germain’s story, you may want to explore the TrackVia Web site.
Some of the points that caught my attention about this company and its service were:
- Change tracking
- Supports attachments
- Allows statement in natural language and provides a report set up feature with filters
- Point and click data manipulation
- Seamless integration with a Web site.
You should take a look at the quite good demonstration here.
What I found interesting about TrackVia is that its strengths make evident the weaknesses of desktop database and spreadsheet tools. I noticed four features that set TrackVia apart:
- The search function is the method of querying the database. TrackVia’s content processing tags, stores, and manages notes and attachments.
- The storage feature operates seamlessly. Users don’t have to know where an object is nor memorize a method to hook an object into a traditional database.
- The tight integration with a browser blurs the line between a remote and a local application. Data can be local if a user wants to download them. Data can be remote for any user, so it is no longer necessary to shove files around.
- Report generation requires zero specialized skills. If the data contain zip codes, a report is automatically displayed with the data on a Google Map. (This tie up with Google is interesting to me.)
The company was founded in 2005, and it the backing of some high profile investment firms. With the growing interest in cloud computing and data management, the TrackVia system seems poised for rapid growth. After watching the demo, I came away with several interesting ways to use the service. Check it out.
Stephen Arnold, November 12, 2008
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