Differentiation: The New Enterprise Search Barrier
October 30, 2009
I don’t know one tree from another. When someone points out a maple and remarks that it is a sugar maple, I have no clue about a maple and even less information about a sugar maple. A lack of factual foundation means that I know nothing about trees. Sure, I know that most trees are green and that I can cut one down and burn it. But I don’t own a chain saw, so that general information means zero in the real world.
Now consider the clueless minions who have to purchase an enterprise search system. The difference between my tree knowledge and their search knowledge is easy to point out. Both of us are likely to become confused. To me, trees look alive. To the search procurement team, search systems look alike.
I received an announcement about a search system (nameless, of course) which asserted:
[The vendor’s product] is the first mobile enterprise search server to enable secure ‘anywhere’ access to data that resides across all information sources, including individual desktops, email stores, file shares, external sites and enterprise applications. Leveraging the [vendor’s product] Enterprise Server as its backbone, [the vendor’s product] Anywhere is capable of delivering secure, immediate access to any browser-enabled device, from an iPhone to a Blackberry and beyond.
I find that this write up is * very * similar to the Coveo email search solution, which has one of its features as mobile access plus a number of other bells and whistles.
I can document many other similarities in the way in which search vendors describe their products. In fact, I identified a phrase first used by Endeca in 2003 or 2004 as a key element in Microsoft’s marketing of its SharePoint search systems. My recollection is the phrase in question is “user experience.” Endeca may have snagged it somewhere just as Mozart plucked notes from his contemporaries.
Confusion among search vendors is easy. Many recycle words, phrases, and buzzwords, hoping that their spin will win customers. One thing is certain. Vendors have the azure chip consultants in a tizzy. One prominent azure chip outfit in New York has pegged Google a laggard and a product that has yet to make its appearance as a leader.
Procurement teams? Baffled for sure. Differentiation is needed, but it doesn’t come by recycling another vendor’s marketing collateral or relying on the azure chip crowd to cook up a new phrase to baffle the paying customers, or some of the paying customers.
Vendors, differentiate. Don’t imitate.
Stephen Arnold, October 30, 2009
A former Ziffer bought me dinner this week. Does that count as compensation? I deserve more.
SEO for Bing
October 13, 2009
I don’t know too much about Bing.com’s relevance ranking algorithm. The last time I invested time in Bing.com was three months ago. I did find “5 Simple Steps to Optimize Your Website for Bing, the New Microsoft Search Engine” more evidence for following Google’s guidelines for Web sites. Regarding the point about outbound links, in our tests, outbound links are useful because such outbounds may result in a reciprocal backlink. The rest of the tips seem to come straight from the Google playbook.
Stephen Arnold, October 12, 2009
SharePoint: The Enterprise Platform
October 12, 2009
I read “SharePoint 2010: The Enterprise Platform” with an open mind. Microsoft is “all over” the US Federal government. Many of the information technology savvy folks with whom I speak point out the advantages of the SharePoint solution. Programming is getting easier. Users are comfortable with the basic features and functions of the system. Competitors’ products are often more expensive to license. SharePoint is easily shaped into what an information professional needs to solve a particular problem. Microsoft makes available a large number of software “MRE”s; that is, ready to eat, no extra effort required to get certain capabilities or functionality.
Jeremy Thake’s article provides some useful background for SharePoint 2010. This release of SharePoint adds a number of new capabilities to an already richly endowed system. He did make a comment that I found interesting:
In my opinion and a lot of others SharePoint is “a jack of all trades and a master of none”, much like most of the other vendors who played the same card. SharePoint is extremely strong in the collaboration area from an End User perspective, but is weak for example in Records Management, Business Intelligence and Digital Asset Management.The days of purchasing a product for a specific area have clearly gone which is a shame because you pick one of the Enterprise Platforms and suffer in the weaker areas.
He concludes his write up with a reference to MOSS 2007 “horror stories” and makes clear that he loves SharePoint “anyway”.
My thought is that overburdened information technology professionals may find the charms of SharePoint fading when complexity and costs begin to rise. These two issues may be the stepping stones for Google, despite its flaws and weaknesses, to make significant gains at a time when Microsoft is hoping that SharePoint 2010 blunts the appeal of Google’s enterprise offerings.
Google is no match for Microsoft in terms of marketing. But Google does a much better job with the technology for a hybrid platform in my opinion. Can Google deal with the buzz saw of SharePoint 2010? Interesting face off to watch in the last weeks of 2009.
Stephen Arnold, October 12, 2009 No dough
Coveo’s New Enterprise Desktop Search System
October 1, 2009
I have been using Coveo’s products for years. I remember the first time I fired up the original desktop search program. I found the interface intuitive and the features in line with how I looked for information. I learned from the company yesterday (September 30, 2009) that a new version of the product is now available. I noticed that the company has added several new features to its Enterprise Desktop Search application; for example:
- Search of content on my netbook, my Outlook mail store, and other applications running in my Harrod’s Creek data center.
- A centralized index of all enterprise information, including the formerly risky and elusive, cross-enterprise PC and laptop content, which is useful when I am in a meeting and need a coding gosling to locate a particular item of information that I tucked away without telling anyone its location
- Enhanced monitoring functions.
After installing the application, you will want to check out the built in connectors, the faceted “point and click” search function, and the support for access from a BlackBerry device. Nifty indeed because RIM’s search function is not too useful in my opinion.
The president and founder Laurent Simoneau told me:
With our roots dating to the early days of Copernic, a global leader in consumer desktop search, we were committed to build the cross-enterprise capability to index and provide unified access for employees to their desktop content, including their email,” said Coveo CEO and President Laurent Simoneau, who prior to founding Coveo in 2005 was COO of Copernic. “What we’ve done is elevate that access to a higher level, with unified search of not only their individual PCs and laptops, but of contextually relevant knowledge and information residing in any enterprise system, based on IT permissions. In so doing, we’ve placed control over cross-enterprise desktop content indexing, with complete security and access permissions, in the hands of IT.
The benefits of the new system struck me as reducing the time spent hunting for email. Larger organizations will be able to reduces costs and risks as well.
The Coveo Enterprise Desktop Search application is powered by the Coveo Enterprise Search 6.0 platform, which is scalable from hundreds of thousands to billions of documents, and requires approximately 20 percent of the server footprint of legacy enterprise search solutions. Our tests show that Coveo is one of the more modular and scalable enterprise search solutions. It ranks as one of the easiest to install and configure search solutions we have tested. Worth a look. Fill out the form and give it a spin.
Stephen Arnold, October 1, 2009
Google Android Flapette
September 27, 2009
Android Guys published Google Responds Cyanogate 09 and caught my attention. The goslings have been enmeshed in a Google development project, and we have not paid much attention to Android. Android Guys do. This story contained an interesting comment about confusion regarding certain open source issues. Android Guys point out that Android is open source with some constraints. What are those restraints? Well, that is one of the sort of clear Google points. Best bet is to not wrap Google’s apps into one own Android code.
Stephen Arnold, September 27, 2009
Mobile News Aggregation
September 23, 2009
I wrote an essay about the impending implosion of CNN. The problem with traditional media boils down to cost control. Technology along won’t keep these water logged outfits afloat. With demographics working against those 45 years of age and above, the shift from desktop computers to portable devices creates opportunities for some and the specter of greater marginalization for others. I saw a glimpse of the future when I looked at Broadersheet’s iPhone application. You can read about the service in “Broadersheet Launching “Intelligent News Aggregator” iPhone App”. The app combines real time content with more “traditional” RSS content. The operative words for me are “intelligent”” and “iPhone”. More information is available on the Broadersheet Web site. Software that learns and delivers information germane to my interests on a mobile device is not completely new, of course. The Broadsheet approach adds “time” options and a function that lets me add comments to stories. This is not convergence; the application makes clear the more genetic approach of blending DNA from related software functions.
Stephen Arnold, September23, 2009
Interpreting the Microsoft Song about Mobile Search
September 17, 2009
I learned that Bing.com has almost 11 percent of the Web search market. That’s good. Competition in Web search can be useful. I spent some time looking at Hakia’s librarian-intermediated search results, Devilfinder.com (an interesting search engine from an individual in southern California), and a wheelbarrow full of European search systems. There are a couple of quite useful search systems and quite a few that a heavy on glitz and weak in usefulness to me. Armed with these recent experiences, I read The Register’s article “Microsoft Targets Google’s Mobile Dream with Bing”. The writing was clear, and I assume the message I carried away was close to what Microsoft’s Charles Songhurst intended. I read:
Microsoft had internalized a lot of what Google has been saying” in recent years on mobile search being worth more than PC-based search.
My interpretation was: Microsoft is studying Google and, where possible, trying to think like Google to beat Google.
I also noted:
He [Songhurst] noted Microsoft wants to get the search algorithms right for each market before promoting Bing locally. A key component of the Microsoft deal to buy Yahoo! is that Bing drives search in the markets served by Yahoo! during the next 10 years, which will give Microsoft time to build and tune the Bing algorithms to improve searches and returns.
My interpretation was: Microsoft is focusing on algorithms just like Google. Furthermore, the time line for Microsoft and search is 10 years. The push will conclude in 2019.
I have been documenting Google’s changes in public search such as the nifty “ig” (individualized Google) functions. I also try to mention the enterprise innovations that I think are important in that sector such as the WAC attack; that is, Wave, Android, and Chrome with Google Apps along for the joy ride.
The challenge Microsoft has is that emulating Google and learning from Google is not what is needed. The task is to leap frog Google. Google’s core technology is over 11 years old and Microsoft is focusing on that collections of innovations. One cannot shoot a goose (heaven forbid) with a shotgun by aiming directly at the fowl. One must shoot where the goose will be when the pellets arrive to kill the beastie. Microsoft is shooting at the Google, not where the Google is going. The 10 year time line is two Soviet five year plans. Didn’t work in the USSR. Won’t work at MSFT in my opinion.
Aardvark Help Engine for the iPhone
September 16, 2009
The iPhone continues to add bells and whistles, and a new app for search is pretty interesting. It’s called Aardvark, and it’s a “help engine.” You can post a question from your phone and get a live answer from any of your social networks, like Facebook Connect, Twitter, etc. It works like an IM. You post, and Aardvark detects your location, looks for someone to answer the question, and notifies you of the results. You can also make yourself available to answer questions. See details at http://blog.vark.com/?p=188. You can download it at http://tinyurl.com/ng74m7.
Jessica Bratcher, September 16, 2009
Is Google Building a Star Trek Communicator?
September 14, 2009
The Google is assembling pieces of technology to perform some useful cross language functions. I recall seeing a Star Trek episode in which the Priceline pitchman or the pointy-eared wizard used a device to translate alien speech into Hollywood English. The question this patent application triggered in my mind was, “Is Google building a Star Trek communicator?” Read “Voice Recognition Grammar Selection Based on Context” (US20090228281) and see what you make of this description.
The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving geographical information derived from a non-verbal user action associated with a first computing device. The non-verbal user action implies an interest of a user in a geographic location. The method also includes identifying a grammar associated with the geographic location using the derived geographical information and outputting a grammar indicator for use in selecting the identified grammar for voice recognition processing of vocal input from the user.
I think this is science fiction. Well, maybe only science semi-fiction.
Stephen Arnold, September 14, 2009
Pigeons versus Kentucky Broadband
September 13, 2009
A happy quack to the caller today who alerted me to this news flash from Tom’s Hardware. Of course, living near a mine run off pond discourages the phone and cable companies from putting high speed anything in my dank hollow. The story’s headline is enticing: “Pigeon Found to be Faster Than Broadband”. I enjoyed this comment:
ISP Telom said that it couldn’t be held responsible for the slow transfer speeds to the IT company, as it has helped to advise the company in possible improvements, but thus far none have been accepted.
I heard from my local ISP that its system was really fast. Never mind that my Verizon WAN card times out when I try to access my mail via the ISP’s Web interface. “Works for us,” the company wrote. Yep, carrier pigeons. Also in Kentucky.
Stephen Arnold, September 13, 2009
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