GitHub Gets Some Love from Microsoft
March 29, 2013
GitHub is a big deal, the best possible brand of social media for developers, enabling open source code sharing and collaboration. Mac and Linux operating systems have long embraced GitHub, but acceptance by Microsoft has been a bit more reticent. However, Wired shares some good news in their article, “Microsoft Windows Gets More Love From Git.”
The article has this to say about the changes toward GitHub by Microsoft:
“The site is the home to more than 4.5 million open source projects, letting software coders share and collaborate on software code, and sometimes, people share other stuff too. But Atlassian — the Australian company behind popular developer tools like JIRA — . . . is rolling out a tool that will compete with GitHub’s Windows client: SourceTree, a visual tool for working with GitHub, BitBucket, Stash or any other code repository based on the code-management tools Git or Mercurial. SourceTree has long been available for Macintosh OS X, but as of Tuesday, Windows developers can download the public beta.”
This is the most recent example of the softening of relations between the two. A few months ago, Microsoft integrated support for GitHub into their Microsoft Visual Studio. So what does this mean? Open source is here to stay and Microsoft is scrambling to get on board. It also means that Microsoft is likely to start losing ground quickly in the enterprise search arena to smart open source or open core solutions like LucidWorks. Microsoft has never really been a leader in innovation, but it seems like now they are just hoping to stay in the game.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Hortonworks Brings Big Data to Microsoft
March 7, 2013
Open source and Microsoft are fairly strange bedfellows. It is not often that readers would find the two mentioned in the same headline. However, what is a common headline these days is Big Data. For readers looking for headlines surrounding that term, there is no shortage. All of the themes above come together in one of the latest CMS Wire stories, “Hortonworks Brings Open Source Big Data Hadoop Platform To Microsoft’s Windows.”
The article begins:
“Further evidence that big data is going mainstream is the announcement from Hortonworks that its Hortonworks Data Platform for Windows (HDPW) is available in beta, making it the first Apache Hadoop distribution that is available for both Windows and Linux . . . HDPW should be on general releases as early as the second quarter. Using it, Hortonworks continues its mission to extend Apache Hadoop to every corner of the enterprise. With this release, users will be able to capture any amount of data and share it in any format, scaled to any size.”
So open source is on the move and no one can stop it, leaving the proprietary giants to get out of the way or adopt. It seems that Microsoft has chosen the latter. But just because everyone is scrambling to offer an open source based Big Data solution, it does not mean that they are all created equal. Take LucidWorks for example. Their LucidWorks Big Data rests on the power of Lucene and Solr and builds on years of industry experience. Plus, it is backed up by industry-leading support and training.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 7, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
BI Magic Quadrant Casting a Spell Over Visionary BI Leaders
March 7, 2013
Gartner’s business intelligence software Magic Quadrant has some big players chomping at the bit. Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM are all major forces in the business intelligence arena and they all want a piece of MQ.
In ZDnet’s “Gartner Releases 2013 BI Magic Quadrant” we get a look at those big fish and why they’re interested in this new Magic Quadrant. One thing to keep at the forefront is that Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and Oracle figure prominently into both business intelligence and data warehousing; which is why they all want a piece of MQ, it has both BI and DW capabilities.
“…And speaking of the Big Data world, you will see in the BI MQ report, as you did in the DW MQ, that partnerships and connectors to major Hadoop distributions, and the beginnings of standardization on the R programming language for statistics and predictive analytics, is starting to take place. In fact, in the near future, we may find that distinguishing between DW, BI and Big Data markets will be a contrived endeavor. These worlds will likely become like neighborhoods in the same city…”
Microsoft is a leader in the ability to execute and it has more than a little BI experience but IBM is really the frontrunner in the completeness of its vision. It is a master of acquisition and it is those planned and executed acquisitions that have propelled IBM forward in the era of Microsoft.
That Gartner has been able to develop a system that has excited the Big Four and created a veritable “arms” race is something to smile about.
Leslie Radcliff, March 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Yandex Outpaces Microsoft in Search Traffic
February 27, 2013
We knew Yandex was one to keep an eye on. Now, Search Engine Watch announces, “Yandex Just Passed Bing to Become 4thLargest Global Search Engine.” According to comScore‘s recent qSearch report analyzing traffic from last November and December, Yandex processed 4.844 billion queries to Microsoft’s 4.477 billion. This despite the fact that the report lumps together traffic from Bing with that of other Microsoft properties like MSN and Windows Live. (Google, of course, is still way, way, way ahead with 114.73 billion search queries.)
Writer Michael Bonfils notes that we cannot be sure what drives this Yandex lead. He observes, though, that the pool of Russian users is still growing and evolving, while the Western markets where Microsoft processes the most traffic seem to be approaching saturation. The article concludes:
“You can speculate all day about what’s happening here. Do Russians just search more? Are Russians searching more because they don’t like the results? Are they gaining market share in countries like Turkey or the Ukraine? Who wins with unique users?
“Regardless of all that, I wasn’t expecting to see Yandex, which doesn’t have nearly the marketing budgets of Microsoft, surpass them in global search queries by the end of 2012. Nothing better than seeing incredibly talented underdogs race past one of the biggies.”
Though we find this development less of a surprise, we join Bonfils in cheering for the underdog. What will the future bring for the formidable Yandex?
Cynthia Murrell, February 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Creating Search Based Apps in SharePoint Simple and Effective
February 20, 2013
New SharePoint users can often benefit from a hands on learning tutorial that lays out step by step how to get things done accurately and well, accurately. Let’s face it, in this fast paced world of ever evolving technology it is important to not waste time. Time is MONEY and money is the business.
Ontolica has done it again. With “Building Search Based Applications with SharePoint,” author Robert Piddocke walks users through an easy and effective way to create a search based application.
“Creating Search Based Applications in SharePoint is an easy and effective way to drive contextually valuable information to users without the limitations of having the documents in a specific library. Search can surface content from not just SharePoint but even from File Shares or other document management systems. All you need is the content crawled and you can create a document display mechanism based on search.”
The first step is to identify what metadata you want to use and if custom columns on SharePoint lists exist and can be used for your search. You must make a metadata mapping in the search service application for each piece of metadata you want to use. Run a full crawl.
Next up is creating a new page for your search based app. Then you must configure th core search result web parts but don’t forget that each web part needs a unique setting in order to function properly. After you adjust the layout xalt on the resut web parts to exclude the description and display relevant metadata you then have to set the sort on the result web part for date to display the most recent items and ply a query hat will match what you need users to see.
For more detailed information and some ridiculously helpful screenshots as well as a download we suggest heading over to Piddocke’s article.
Leslie Radcliff, February 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft Moves Closer to Open Source
February 14, 2013
Git support has been added to Microsoft and the IT world is all atwitter. Microsoft has long stood directly opposite open source, but this move begins to bridge the gap. InfoWorld draws attention to the news with their story, “Has Microsoft Finally Embraced Open Source?”
The article begins:
“News broke Wednesday about Microsoft adding support for Git to Visual Studio, both in the client — so that it can be used to work against any Git DVCS (distributed version control system) such as Gitorious or GitHub — and on the server. The upshot is twofold: Those using Microsoft’s proprietary centralized version control have a new escape route, and GitHub has a new competitor.”
Microsoft has embarked on a warming trend toward open source. Git is experiencing popularity amongst the developer community. However, GitHub, a major Git repository, has experienced recent search problems. And while news of Microsoft warming toward open source is definitely good news, it may not make a practical difference to most small and medium enterprises. For those businesses, an industry trusted solution like LucidWorks is probably the best course of action.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Microsoft Gets Closer to Open Source Goodness
February 13, 2013
Is that a pig I see flying by the window? Or, as Simon Phipps at InfoWorld puts it, “Has Microsoft Finally Embraced Open Source?” The company recently added support for the open-source version-control system Git to its developer tool Visual Studio. It looks to us like the Microsoft leopard may be changing its spots in order to follow in IBM‘s footprints.
Phipps notes that he has observed other positive signs, like changes to the developer terms for the Windows Phone that favor open-source licenses. At the same time, though, the company is still showing signs of hostility. It has accused the city of Munich, Germany, of under-reporting the costs of its Linux-based system, going so far as to commission a “secret report” to bolster its charges. The apparent contradiction, the article notes, stems from the fact that Microsoft (like any corporation) is actually a collection of divisions, teams, and individuals, some of which have different perspectives from others. Phipps writes:
“Microsoft is on a long march toward accepting the market inevitability of open source, but the right foot doesn’t always know what the left is doing. The company is still fighting open source on the desktop, while staying mostly silent about its taxation of open source usage (in the form of ‘royalties’ for supposed software patent infringements, in return for promising not to litigate). Other teams see the wisdom of nonconfrontation, while some —such as the developer tools team —seems to want to engage in a positive way.
“When corporations embark on such a journey, it remains smart and reasonable for communities to assume that previous behavior will continue until a clear pattern of experience shows otherwise.”
Good point; the open source community would be wise to keep its guard up until a company-wide shift in its favor has been unequivocally declared. However, there is nothing wrong with indulging in a little hope.
Cynthia Murrell, February 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft Wants In On Social Search
February 4, 2013
Facebook’s Graph Search launched recently and quick as a hare Microsoft follows with its own social search. ZDNet reports that “Bing And Beyond: How Microsoft Is Attacking ‘Social Search.’” Microsoft is not a social networking company, but it does use Bing’s social sidebar to sync with Facebook. Microsoft now allows more Facebook content via the social sidebar. How much? An average of five times more information from links, status updates, photos, and all the usual Facebook content.
Microsoft and Facebook already have an ongoing deal and the PC-maker wanted to remind users of its existence:
“Microsoft officials played up the increased Facebook integration in a January 17 Bing Community blog post. Two days ago, when Facebook announced its Graph Search technology, the Bing team reminded users that Microsoft is still providing Web search for Facebook. Bing isn’t providing any of the back-end search for Graph Search, however.”
Microsoft and Facebook may be partners right now, but judging how Facebook is trying to compete with Google search by developing an in-house search tool. They might be closer to a dissolution than we think. Microsoft sounds like the gold star student, who is suddenly replaced by a new kid. Microsoft is standing in the back and waving its hand, “I can do that too! Don’t forget about me!”
Whitney Grace, February 04, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Microsoft Signs Up For The US Military
January 16, 2013
Uncle Sam wants every capable and willing young man or woman to serve their country, but this time the US military picked something else to join the team. Slashdot reported that the “US Military Signs Modernization Deal With Microsoft.” Three branches of the US military: the air force, army, and the Defense Information Systems Agency signed an agreement with Microsoft for updates to the software among all three.
“According to Microsoft, the deal will cover 75% of all Department of Defense personnel, and bring to them the latest versions of SharePoint, Office, and Windows. The deal awards Microsoft $617 million, which is after discounts to the software totaling in the tens of millions. Interestingly, DISA’s senior procurement executive said, ‘[The agreement] recognizes the shift to mobility. Microsoft is committed to making sure that the technology within the agreement has a mobile-first focus, and we expect to begin to take advantage of Microsoft’s mobile offerings as part of our enterprise mobility ecosystem.’”
It is only an enterprise and mobile upgrade and not an installation of powerful, new weapons grade software. The military probably does use SharePoint, Windows, and Office to discuss confidential information and if they were using old software it cuts down on productivity and accuracy. Microsoft keeps an important client with the agreement. We wonder how the military will like Windows 8.
Whitney Grace, January 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
SharePoint 2013 Offers Improvements in Search
January 10, 2013
An overall architecture for SharePoint 2013 Search can be found on the Search Technologies’ Web site.
As new releases tend to do, SharePoint 2013 has made some tweaks that users would do well to explore, we learn in “Search Engine Changes in SharePoint 2013” from iT Pro. SharePoint consultant Veena Sarda details the search-related changes and presents them in a handy chart.
The first thing to note is that FAST Search has now been worked into the SharePoint code base. That means that FAST capabilities like metadata extraction, visual search, and advanced linguistics are now part of the package. Content and analytics processors have been added to the logical architecture, and a specialized Search Administrator now manages these and other search-related components. Also new is a dedicated analysis engine, which performs both search and usage analytics.
Crawling has been improved; it is now possible to crawl http sites anonymously, and the time for the index to merge and present those results has been dramatically shortened. Results rendering has been moved from the server to the client side. Document parsing is now much more refined, relying on a set of new parsing features, rather than on file extensions to do the job.
Other welcome improvements affect the user experience. The UI has been revamped to accommodate the new features, with a re-design based on nested layout templates defined in JavaScript and HTML. This change allows for easier extensibility. Furthermore, end users now have an easier time of it; the write-up notes that the platform now provides:
“Direct access to the most granular information inside of sites and documents, and then enables users to act on the results without having to leave the results page. Every search box in every team site offers full access to enterprise-wide search, people search, and other specialized search experiences in addition to the traditional scoped site search.”
Part of this simplified workflow is the new Hover feature, which presents a visual preview of sites, documents, and conversations at the pause of a mouse.
A few more search-related improvements: Authors are identified as experts based on document content, where before they were identified by My Site profiles. People Search (which used to be independent of document search) has been integrated with the core results and can be targeted by name, location, phone number, and other properties.
Perhaps one of the most noteworthy shifts is the new Query Rules feature. SharePoint 2010 only allows for simple queries—one query, one set of results. Sarda writes:
“Query Rules are a new feature in SharePoint 13 that help act upon the ‘intent’ of a query – Query Rules are composed of three top level elements: Query Conditions (i.e. matching rules), Query Actions (i.e. what do you do when you find a match), Publishing Options (i.e. when should this rule be active). Query Rules allows to have search requests from a user trigger multiple queries and multiple result sets.”
A welcome addition. For more information on SharePoint 2013, see the “brief functional walk-through” posted at Search Technologies. It contains, among other things, an easy-to-understand flow chart. The SharePoint experts there also promise to post future updates at that link.
Search Technologies leverages search engines to provide business advantages to their clients. With over twenty years of experience in the field, the company asserts that it is the largest IT services company dedicated to search engine implementation, consulting, and managed services. For information on the firm’s SharePoint 2013 Search Services, visit www.searchtechnologies.com. Search Technologies is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.
Cynthia Murrell, January 10, 2013
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