Publishers Get the F Scott Fitzgerald Treatment
November 24, 2009
If you are a fan of F Scott Fitzgerald, you know he skewers his targets with a thin, sharp rapier. When the point finds its mark, often the victim does not realize at the moment that a fatal blow has been struck. I thought of F Scott when I read “Screening the News” by Mrinal Desai, founder of CrossLoop. the story appeared in TechCrunch and I think that that the publication used Mr. Desai as a sharp rapier. The victim is the traditional print media which seems intent on making the word “paywall” next year’s Oxford English Dictionary. Traditional publishers may want to “unfriend” people like Mr. Desai.
The guts of the story is that a motivated and sharp person like Mr. Desai can get along just fine without relying a whole lot on traditional publishing companies’ products. The write up is a tutorial on how to stay informed and use information instead of working the way people did in the Dark Ages. In case the clear explanation and links don’t drive the point home, a nifty diagram is included. I wanted to reproduce it, but the goose does not need a legal eagle darkening his Harrod’s Creek sky. Just navigate to the story on TechCrunch and scroll down until you see the headline “Social Distribution Channels.” You are there.
Several observations:
First, I think the article makes clear how traditional media faces an uphill battle in its slog against the digital environment.
Second, I like very much the method of Mr. Desai. I picked up a few good ideas too.
Third, TechCruch has used an F Scott Fitzgerald technical with a wonderful adeptness.
I wonder if the traditional media know that they have been run through with cold digital steel?
Stephen Arnold, November 24, 2009
I wish to disclose to the National Gallery of Art that I was not paid to write about this artistic piercing of traditional media.
Funnelback Contextual Navigation
November 24, 2009
Short honk: I just watched a video about faceted navigation. You can check out the Funnelback video here. What caught my attention was this title: “Funnelback Fluster Cluster”. Interesting. I have a friend who uses the word “fluster” in a most unusual way. Fluster connotes to me behaving in a confused manner. Search engine marketing has an internal rhythm.
Stephen Arnold, November 24, 2009
Dear Education Department, I was not paid to point out the interesting co-occurrence of “fluster” and “cluster”. What luck from a duck!
Microsoft and News Corp.: A Tag Team of Giants Will Challenge Google
November 23, 2009
Government regulators are powerless when it comes to online. The best bet, in my opinion, is for large online companies to act as if litigation and regulator hand holding was a cost of doing business. While the legal eagles flap and the regulators meet bright, chipper people, the business of online moves forward.
The news that News Corp. and Microsoft are, according to “Microsoft Offers To Pay News Corp To “De-List” Itself From Google”, and other “experts”, these two giants want to form a digital World Wrestling Federation tag team. In the “fights” to come, these champions—Steve Ballmer and Rupert Murdoch–will take on the unlikely upstarts, Sergey the Algorithm Guy and Larry the Math Whiz.
Which of these two tag teams will grace the cover of the WWF marketing collateral? What will their personas become? Source: http://www.x-entertainment.com/pics5/wwe11click.jpg
The idea is to “pull” News Corp. content from Google or make it pay through its snout for the right to index News Corp. content. The deal will probably encompass any News Corp. content. Whatever Google deal is in place with News Corp. would be reworked. News Corp., like other traditional media companies is struggling to regain its revenue traction.
For Microsoft a new wrestling partner makes sense. Bing is gaining market share, but at the expense of Yahoo’s search share. Microsoft now faces Google’s 1,001 tiny cuts. The most recent is the browser based operating system. There is the problem of developers with Microsoft’s former employees rallying the Google faithful. There’s the pesky Android phone thing that went from a joke to a coalition of telephone-centric outfits. There’s the annoyance of Google in the US government. On and on. No one Google nick has to kill Microsoft. Nope. Google just needs to let a trickle of revenue slip away from the veins of Microsoft. The company’s rising blood pressure will do the rest. Eventually, the losses from the 1,001 tiny cuts will force the $70 billion Redmond wrestler to take a break. That “rest” may be what gives Google the opportunity to do significant damage with its as-yet-unappreciated play for the TV, cable, and independent motion picture business. Silverlight 4.0 may not be enough to overcome the structural changes in rich media. That’s real money. Almost as much as the telephony play promises to deliver to the somewhat low key team of Sergey the Algorithm Guy and Larry the Math Whiz
Sergey the Algorithm Guy and Larry the Math Whiz take a break from discussing the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of normality. Training is tough for this duo. Long hours of solitary computation may exhaust the team before it tackles the Ballmer-Murdoch duo, which may be the most dangerous opponent the Math Guys have faced.
I look forward to the fight promoter to pull out all the stops. One of the Buffers will be the announcer. The cut man will be the master, Stitch Duran. The venue will be Las Vegas, followed by other world capitals of money, power, and citizen concern.
Nicholas Carlson reported:
Still, if News Corp were to “de-list” from Google, we’d expect to see all kinds of ads touting Bing as the only place to find the Wall Street Journal and MySpace pages online. Maybe that’d swing search engine share some, but we doubt it.
France Begins to See Google as a Nation State
November 22, 2009
“The Digitalization of Literary Works: Is Google above the Law” is one of those articles that reveals how far out of touch journalists and Google pundits who talk about the Google Foosball tables and the Google stacks of snacks. Google is 11 years old and has meticulously documented exactly what it has built and what that infrastructure’s capabilities are. Google, in my opinion, figures that if a person is too lazy to read a technical paper, why should Google “connect the dots” for anyone.
The French daily l’Humanité seems to be on a more fruitful path than the folks who explain that Chrome is really not new or that it is no match for Windows 7 or Mac OSX. Whatever. Google is now packaging innovations that are in some cases seven or eight years old. Chrome is being productized to further waterboard Steve Ballmer. I am tired of explaining this misperception about Google. Read my monographs. You won’t learn how those wild and crazy guys figured out “search” from me.
The big news in this story is that Google “gets its hands on Lyon’s public library.” (I thought that another vendor “had its hands on” the Lyon library, but as most Google competitors learn, Google doesn’t have hands. Google is an environment and one day folks at a place like the Lyon public library say, “Hey, we’re Googley.” Believe me, vendors have a tough time selling against an outfit that doesn’t return phone calls or try particularly hard to win accounts. Most Googlers are blissfully clueless about “traditional sales methods” by virtue of Google’s wacky hiring process.
l’Humanité reported:
There is a precedent in France: the City of Lyon signed an agreement with Google in 2008. Over the last few months Lyon’s public library, the second largest in France, has given several interviews. In the columns of Le Monde, the library’s manager indicated that the contract signed with Google extended over several years, and on France 2 (French national television network) put the cost at €60 million, or €120 per title. This information comes as a surprise given that the amount is two or three times higher than that announced two years ago by the president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Furthermore, according to a report from Lyon city council, the contract with Google is set to run for…..twenty-five years! The same mystery surrounds the benefits accorded to the Californian giant, which claims it merely wants to transmit culture! The aforementioned report stipulates that Google will have full ownership of the digital books.
Okay, so people in France don’t know what deal Lyon cut with the Google. Then the article revealed:
In order to find out the truth, we asked Lyon city hall for the documents pertaining to the deal concluded with Google, documents which should normally be public. And surprise, surprise, they refused to communicate this information. We also posed several questions to Google France, in particular concerning the number of French titles available on Google Books. The response was negative! Google claims not to know how many books are in French!
The capstone of the write up appears in this passage:
the Californian company has announced that the location of the centre responsible for digitizing books from Lyon’s library is a secret! Anyone would think we were in a James Bond film! This refusal is, however, legal. That of Lyon’s city hall poses a more serious question. According to city hall, a clause was signed forbidding them from giving access to the contract documents signed with Google. They even refuse to reveal information that the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents has stated can be communicated without reserve!
Dealings between diplomats from France and Germany in World War One were less convoluted. In my opinion, France is realizing that Google operates like a country, not a company. See how far off the mark the “Sergey and Larry eat pizza” analyses are.
Check out those Google technical papers. The Google is quite an interesting company and it just now making public accessible technology that is quite old. The question is, “What’s Google working on now?” The betas are like looking at Google in a rear view mirror of a car speeding away from the Googleplex.
Stephen Arnold, November 22, 2009
Exalead and Real Travel
November 21, 2009
I noted “Real Travel Chooses Exalead CloudView Search” in the SEO Journal. I have been a fan of the Exalead technology for a number of years. You can read an exclusive interview with Exalead’s founder in my Search Wizards Speak series. The last time I was in Paris, one of the Exalead engineers took me to Tennessee Fried Chicken for some “real southern” fried cooking.
The news is that Real Travel will “will use Exalead CloudView to deliver a ‘smart’ search-based application designed specifically for the travel industry.”
According to the Ulitzer, Inc. story:
“We [Real Travel] needed a powerful search solution that could scale with us and effectively integrate traditional travel data with unstructured web information,” said Ken Leeder, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Real Travel. “After a thorough review, our search and data architects concluded that a partnership with Exalead would enable us to accelerate our development efforts and provide travel shoppers with the rich information they need to plan their next trip.”
A happy quack to the Exalead team. Oh, Tennessee is noted for its Bar-B-Que and whiskey. Kentucky is horses, bourbon, and KFC.
Stephen Arnold, November 21, 2009
To the Department of Agriculture: I was not paid in comestibles or cash to write this article about Exalead.
Google and Artificial Anchors
November 20, 2009
Folks are blinded by Chrome. What might be missed is what’s often overlooked—Google’s plumbing. Once you have tired of the shiny, bright chatter about Microsoft’s latest reason for its fear and loathing of Google, you may want to navigate to the USPTO and download 20090287698, “Artificial Anchor for a Document.” Google said:
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for linking to an intra-document portion of a target document includes receiving an address for a target document identified by a search engine in response to a query, the target document including query-relevant text that identifies an intra-document portion of the target document, the intra-document portion including the query relevant text. An artificial anchor is generated, the artificial anchor corresponding to the intra-document portion. The artificial anchor is appended the address.
The system and method has a multiplicity of uses, and these are spelled out in Googley detail in the claims made for this patent application. In this free Web log, I won’t dive into the implications of artificial anchors. I will let you don your technical scuba gear and surf on the implications of artificial anchors. Chrome is the surface of the Google ocean. Artificial anchors are part of the Google ocean. Big, big difference.
Stephen Arnold, November 21, 2009
I want to disclose to the USPTO itself that no one paid me to be cryptic in this article.
American Online Tries a Jarring HR Play
November 20, 2009
I try not to think much about America Online, aka AOL. I have not been thrilled with the company’s use of the Relegence.com technology, which I quite like. I heard that at one time AOL used the Fast Search & Transfer SA system, so I did not need to waddle my goose tail down that well worn path. I am really tired of Fast ESP and I think that unless I missed something, the Fast ESP technology was not the main event at the Microsoft developers’ conference or at the Microsoft shareholders meeting. If I overlooked an announcement, please, send me the links. What blipped my radar this afternoon at the BWI airport was this story: “We Need to Fire 2,500 Volunteers”. My goodness. Airplanes cannot be controlled. There’s crazy talk about President Obama from a taxi driver who earned $11 in seven hours on the job. The dollar is not exactly the currency of choice in some * big * countries. Against these warps, the woof from AOL that the company wants volunteers to be terminated. The notion is disturbing. Just call it straight:
Stephen Arnold, November 20, 2009
I want to report to the National Park Service that AOL did not pay me to write this opinion. In fact, a confused antelope would not have have paid me any attention for this story.
Internet for the Data Archaeologist
November 19, 2009
SixRevisions published “The History of the Internet in a Nutshell.” When i write certain documents, I find myself wanting to trot out an old chestnut. This write up is useful because it provides some basic facts and includes a number of useful images. I have downloaded the document. You may want to be like an info squirrel too.
Stephen Arnold, September 19, 2009
I disclose to the Department of Fish & Wildlife that I was not paid in walnuts, chestnuts, or any other type of fungible for this pithy write up.
Yahoo and Panic
November 19, 2009
ZDNet’s “Yahoo’s Dwindling Search Share: Time to Panic?” is a blend of business analysis and technology. Toss in Yahoo and there is an element of the carnival because Yahoo has put on quite a show for advertisers, customers, and stakeholders. ZDNet said:
Yahoo is in a dangerous limbo here. Yahoo’s search team is more likely to be focused on sending resumes than advancing the ball. Advertisers are holding out for the deal to close before picking sides and they’re likely to go to the alpha male in the Microhoo deal—Microsoft. And the biggest problem: Google isn’t standing still.
Spot on. I wonder if this analysis is coming too late for Yahoo? Let me answer my own question. “Yes.” Yahoo will be a case study in many MBA classes. “One day Terry Semel sat in his office and dreamed of making Yahoo into a media company…” You know how this business case unfolds. Business case studies are not news; they are in the rear view mirror of some folks.
Stephen Arnold, November 19, 2009
I disclose the the Securities and Exchange Commission that no one paid me to offer this comment. I may get a free lunch from another company today, but that outfit is mostly indifferent to the drama that is Yahoo.
Less Traffic, Less Revenue: A Google Lesson
November 14, 2009
The confidence of some people is remarkable. There are some high profile rich people who think that Web site traffic is easy to get. Most pipe dreams begin with an assumption that users will visit a Web site. The reality is that getting and keeping Web traffic is tough, even for outfits with a big name brand.
A good example of the “no traffic, no revenue” challenge appears in “AOL’s Google Revenue Is Crashing”. The point of the article is that AOL’s Google revenue is declining. The reason for the decline is irrelevant. Focus on this passage:
Why the decline in Google revenue? Almost half of the decline last quarter is because of lower search query volume — in part because of the decline of AOL’s access business, which drives people to AOL search by default — and the rest of the blame goes to lower revenues per search query, AOL says in its filing. AOL’s Google deal runs through December 19, 2010, so there is some time to figure out what’s next. But as Google (and Microsoft, another potential search partner) see how much leverage they have over AOL in these arrangements, it’s hard to see AOL’s next search deal working out even as favorably as the current one.
With some organizations confident their content and name recognition will generate cash, I wonder if the AOL situation will make much of an impression?
Stephen Arnold, November 14, 2009
I want to report to the Employment Standards Administration that I am unemployed; therefore, this article is a freebie. Disclosure is so satisfying.
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