IT has not enabled counter terrorisme

The article on The Standard today about IT failing in helping intelligence agencies with discovering relations between pieces of information and “connecting the dots” pretty much amazed me.

As we all (at least us information access professionals) know, the intelligence agencies in the US (and other countries) use search engine software intensively.
The homepage of Autonomy states clearly that the Department of Homeland security uses their Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL). I think it’s safe to presume that the agencies not only use Autonomy software exclusively. Home grown solitions are of course combined with the best of the breed search engines and discovery tools.

Clearly the companies that are implementing the IT solutions have not done their work well or the major search vendors are promising more than they can live up to.

From experience I know that a top search engine can be made useless because of a bad implementation. On the other hand I must say that the vendors almost always paint an over simplifide picture when it comes to getting the most out of their software.

 

The field of search and information discovery is a daring one. One thing I hope is that the experiences and insights that are given on past events are being used to find the wholes and causes for not seeing connections in advance. That kind of knowledge can help everyone in building better solutions and information processes that feed the systems.

I know a company that can help intelligence agencies getting the most out of their search and discovery environment ;-)

Missing vendors in article on Network computing

In the article “Best and worst of times for enterprise search” the author, Paul Korzeniowski, mentions some vendors of enterprise search / eDiscovery solutions.

The list of vendors is missing some very important players though, like Autonomy, Attivio en Microsoft / FAST.

I would advise the author to be more thorough the next time

Google and Games?

Stephen Arnold just posted an article that is a write-down of one of his talks about the Google and the search market.

This time the angle is Google as an application and gaming platform.

First, Google is a platform, and it offers a range of software development kits, application programming interfaces, and “sandbox” toys. The idea is that a developer with online basic programming skills can use the Google platform. At the other end of the spectrum, a professional developer or a company focused on game development can create applications that run on the Google platform.

And then something about the way Google operates:

Second, I think it is important to recognize that Google moves in small, incremental steps. The company does this in order to avoid alerting competitors to its broader strategy and to minimize antitrust actions. Nevertheless, you should plan on allocating your time based on how the Google market shapes up. This means that delay in learning how to code for Google is a bad idea. Among the technologies to learn are SketchUp (Google’s drawing program), Android (the visible part of the Google operating system), Wave (collaborative spaces), and Google Apps and OneBox APIs. These functions are, at a minimum, the way in which to obtain the Googley expertise you need.

I think this is another one of Stephen’s brilliant takes on what’s happening at Google’s HQ.

For me it is again proof that the Google is into nearly everything and that’s why it is bound to lose focus and will get more and more (negative) attention.

Tags van Technorati: google,platform,cloudcomputing,applicationprovider,games

Why is everybody picking on Google

I said it a while ago and now Google is negatively in the news again. The Google is getting to big.

In one of my previous posts I stated that whenever a company or person gets to much influence, it’s only a natural reaction of people to oppose to that force.

On the other hand when a company gets to big, it’s harder to keep focussing on the goals and primairy activities that support those goals.

It’s just a matter of time until the Google breaks up (forced or not) into smaller manageable business parts:

• Office productivity (Apps)
• Advertising
• Enterprise / Internet Search technology
• Cloud computing

Anyone sees other business units?

Tags van Technorati: google,business,public

Google Apps is getting more and more users

According to this blog post by Google, they have more than 3 million users at educational organizations.

It is not so surprising that Google gets very much attention in this user base. Students nowadays grew up with one company they now best. It is the company that delivers the only internet searchengine they know. The company that delivers the E-mail application they use. The company that lets them navigate on their mobile phone. Read the post on Classroom collaboration to illustrate what I mean.

Computing in the clouds is so easy and Google delivers.

Just as a complete generation grew up with the products of Microsoft, A complete generation is now growing up with Google. I see no big difference. It is just a matter of time when Google gets the same negative public attention that Microsoft got. The reason is simple...

When a company gets to "big" or has to much influence the natural "big brother" reaction of the public takes control....

Guessing About Search Intent

Search Done Right » Blog Archive » Guessing About Search Intent: "An interesting conversation has emerged across the blogs this week regarding how well—or not—enterprise search solutions perform at finding information to the satisfaction of the individual user within the confines of an organization."