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Maybe it's the snow or maybe it's the radio including 'Men at Work - Down Under' into a Christmas play list (?) but I'm feeling very festive today. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy holiday and thank you for following the Artesian blog this year. Really looking forward to greeting what should be a very exciting year and watching developments including real time web, paid content and search strategy spill over into 2010. So enjoy the break, be festive and merry, and most importantly - report back for readership duty in January!
We're really pleased to be going into Christmas with the news that next year will see Artesian deliver leading recycling and resource management provider SITA with web based market intelligence (see press release).It's been a really exciting time working with SITA and the project has shown just how valuable a source the web really can be for insight. When you consider all the information that needs filtering in the process (local papers, journals, blogs) mixed with all the topics that are of real relevance to SITA, it just goes to show how much more valuable the web can be when it is organised to suit the needs of the consumer. It's going to be an exciting challenge as we continue to work with SITA and we're very much looking forward to 2010. With so much happening in the online community it'll be great to discover how new opportunities can benefit the search for business intelligence.
As if the events of this year needed any sort of conclusion the shocking announcement that Killing in the name had beaten the X Factor to Christmas number one was most certainly that. 2009 has seen the web really rise to dominance and the fact a Christmas number one can be decided by an unknown man, fed up and venting his anger on Facebook just goes to show just how much power the web really holds.They used to talk about web 2.0 being a way for people to interact and discuss events but it's gone way beyond that at this stage. The social world is controlling events now and not only that, it's breaking news rather than reacting to it.Brittany Murphy's death last night was another example. Similar to the Michael Jackson murmurs earlier in the year no major news site was reporting it whilst Twitter and Facebook feeds filled with rumour and noise about the incident. Of course, many didn't believe the speculation until a trusted name (Sky news) confirmed it but the point remains, news is being discovered by consumers now, the line has shifted.Companies will be taking note of the extreme power behind the Rage Against the Machine campaign. The speed, the connections, and the apparent ease of victory will surely be something no one can ignore going into 2010.
Following on a bit from yesterday I suppose, I saw a great story this morning about a producer who uploaded a short film on Youtube, created with the meagre budget of $300 only to get offered a $30 million contract to direct the Hollywood version.It's ironic, during a time when people are so angered by Simon Cowell's 'fake music' money train - which is really just a genuine chance for un-found talent to get a chance on stage - they choose to buy a dated and offensive track to blast out over the airwaves all over Christmas, that the web is being praised for creating that very same model, giving individals the chance to have a voice in the World.Would anyone have ever spotted that producer had it not been for the stage Youtube provided him with? Probably not, but as it is, the platform will evidently lead to worldwide fame. Knocking down barriers to entry has always been a challenge but the Internet has made it remarkably easy. The point here is, the time has gone where you should dismiss a story or a person, simply based upon the source of their arrival. Everyone has a fair crack of the whip now, and that can only be a good thing.
Here's a (hopefully) interesting scenario... If a major headline broke out in a small town and you had the choice of a house hold national paper reporting the piece, or a blogger from someone near the area, which source would you trust the most? A national of course has the professional journalists, the expensive equipment and the experience of reporting news to the viewer but the blogger could well be an eye witness, or far more knowledgeable on the subject than a reporter flown in last minute. Something the web has done is allow voices to spring up without restriction and while there still seems to be a desire for reliable names online there is also a revolution (most notably with the likes of Twitter and Facebook) rising with new methods of sharing stories. Previously an eye witness might have got a twenty second piece to camera, guided by the questions being posed. But now, they are free to Tweet, blog and share their views on events which can give a far deeper, more meaningful sense to a news piece. The online news industry must be aware of this. Right now they sit on a perch of built up trust but over time, will anyone actually care where they get their insight from?
Google will be encouraged that Chrome has jumped above Apple's Safari browser in popularity. It certainly goes to show that advertising still works (perhaps with just a hint of irony in the midst of the current News Corp battle). They're probably not so in awed however, by the fact that that still only amounts to 4.4% of the market. Google isn't one to do things in small numbers so I'm sure they'll be seeking much more market growth from the recent campaign. I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone who has made the change to Chrome recently, and why they decided to take the leap. Does it really make a big difference to your browsing habits?
It's no coincidence that the day after Google launched a huge advertising campaign to get people using Chrome, a senior figure at Mozilla has urged people to switch their search to Bing. The problem with fighting battles on many fronts is that everyone wants a pop at you and Google need to be careful not to make too many enemies and find themselves surrounded. The privacy issue has become a big problem. Eric Schmidt's suggestion that "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" probably wasn't particularly helpful in front of a pack of web users who are already anxious after recent Facebook changes. The simple fact is, if Google's real time web is to work, they need as much information as possible to add to the mix but I'm not sure they're going about extracting it the right way. There seems to be a very sneaky approach around the issue (changing settings on Facebook to block search engines was very well hidden and had very limited publicity). Whilst Mozilla are of course fighting their own battle, the statement "that a company with so much user data on its servers is led by someone who just doesn't understand privacy is really scary to me and it should be scary to you as well" may not be completely wide of the mark. But the key here is Google have made themselves another enemy, and they seem to be piling up rather rapidly.
There is no doubting that our attention spans are getting shorter. In fact if you're reading this second line then thank you for showing true dedication. I heard an interesting statement last week which claimed all breaking news stories now had a life span of 24 hours. After that, they were sent to the scrap heap and buried. Even ongoing stories, this speaker claimed, needed fresh impetus every 24 hours - a new angle or a breaking twist. He's not wrong. I think the only story this year that relied on the same headline for over a day was the death of Michael Jackson, and even that was filled with rumour and speculation. It's amazing how quickly a huge story can become old news. Does anyone know the most up to date findings of investigations into the Air France flight that went down in the Atlantic ocean earlier this year? No, and the reason is because somewhere along the line we stopped paying attention, the press stopped reporting on an issue that was no longer forefront of public minds. But at the time, everyone was talking about it. Twitter was full of heart felt reaction and devastation. Yet now, most might struggle to remember which airport the flight had even taken off from. The fact is, news has a very short shelf life, so you need to make the most of it whilst it's there. With that said, I won't even mention this post in tomorrow's blog. It's a has been!
A big theme coming from Le Web this week was 'we can do real-time, but why?' Such as the case with many new breakthroughs people take time to figure out the real use, the most relevant use. And I got the sense that the technology was ahead of the human thought process on this one.A lot of B2C companies were trying to explain why, if you were searching for a cooking recipe for example, you'd want the most up to date instructions. But that is complete nonsense. I couldn't give two tablespoons of sugar (if that wasn't a saying it is now) how old a recipe is, if it makes me look good then the job is done. Similarly people were quick to use the recent Tiger Woods scandal as an example of situation where people want to know fast and furious updates...really? The only reason I can see for this is to look like the big know it all at the pub, as if you're closer to the Tiger camp then anyone else ('Oh, have you heard he did it in the kitchen with a candlestick?)The real use of the real time web is for business, and those who value breaking news as game changing announcements. Reactions in hours, not days can be a crucial factor in business success or failure and the ability to learn instantly the actions of a close competitor or customer could well make or break a deal.Whilst I have no qualms about getting constant updates from the Tiger household, as it's interesting if nothing else, it's not exactly putting advanced technology to the most productive of uses is it? Especially when you have the world and his wife tweeting that they've hopped into bed with Tiger as well.
Listened to a great argument from Sean Percival today who claimed that with the speed with which we consume content now, the actual article itself has become irrelevant. What's now more important (even more so with real-time web) is the context surrounding it - the Tweets, the comments and general opinion towards the story. Titles, even more so now focused on SEO, are becoming more and more descriptive, like they themselves are taking the role of the story. That can definitely be applied to business. How a management change has come about is not important. It's the fact that it has and the comment around it that's of great interest to a rival tracking that company. The fact, rather than the description of the fact is what people have time for in the ever increasing speed of content consuming.
Right, there really is far too much to report today but here goes. First things first, yes that is Marc Benioff posing next to the Artesian stand at Dreamforce in London today and yes the photographer did extremely well to get everyone's head in shot! It's been great attending both Dreamforce events this year and it was absolutely fantastic to meet the man behind salesforce.com.Secondly, we've also been selected as Microsoft Bizspark's Start up of the day which is brilliant news heading into LeWeb tomorrow. You can see all the info, including the full interview with CEO Andrew Yates here.Finally, it can't go unnoticed that Google has today launched 'real time data' in search results. I'm really interested to see how incorporating 'tweets' and Facebook updates will affect the search and would like to point out perhaps Google should have waited until after LeWeb to trail this feature (the theme at the event is 'real-time web', and it's being attended by soical networking's finest....prepare to be bombarded Google!)
I'm well and truly in Le web mood now, having debated the idea of packing last night and, just this morning taking a look at the front cover of a French phrase book in the hope that it would instantly start me speaking fluently. Alas, staring at a picture of the Eiffel tower for five minutes doesn't seem to do the trick.Something I'm really keen to do whilst there is establish a network of fellow bloggers in the field, almost a committee of writers on the subject of online. Of course, you could argue Technorati (amongst others) already provides a platform doing this very thing but I'm looking for something more personal. With so many ways of communicating through the web now I think it's a shame for blogs to simply become 'another link' on such sites.I'll be looking to gage opinion on the 'web committee', which I have many ideas for and would love to speak to anyone who has a passion for blogging. Look forward to meeting those attending, be great to share ideas and opinion. Now back to learning French, I need to find the translation for 'Le Web' so I don't end up looking stupid.
CEO of Christmas Inc Christopher Cringle has announced plans to cut costs by exploiting the cloud and taking advantage of social networking according to reports. Rumour began early this morning after Rudolph declared via Tweetdeck that he had ‘become obsolete’ and although Cringle has yet to confirm the speculation, his decision to ‘go green’ by banning handwritten Christmas lists is thought to be a sure sign of things to come.Having earlier this year penned an agreement with Salesforce.com to track all Christmas customers online ‘Santa Claus’ is no stranger to Customer relationship management and the recent revelation that he only communicates with elves ‘through Facebook’ indicates that plans for a web based Christmas have been in place for some time. Cringle is likely to receive brandy and carrots through PayPal micropayments to Tesco deliveries and e-presents look set to replace the original packaged solution.A spokesman for Christmas Inc said ‘in this time of deep recession we’re looking to cut outgoings and streamline our business model without putting elf and reindeer jobs in jeopardy. With sleigh tax increasing and health and safety officials looking to impose heavy regulation on fat men going head first down chimneys, we feel we are very much at a crossroads which needs to be addressed.Cringle is expected to make an official statement at a press conference later today in which Christmas Inc has requested no journalist speculate on the closure of the North Pole Pension scheme.Reaction @artesiansGet in the Christmas spirit and give this to anyone who might appreciate it! 
A thought occurred to me today that, caught up in all this battle for power between Google and News Corp, Google and Facebook, Google and Yahoo (noticing a pattern here), I hadn't checked up on Bing's progress for a while. Sure enough I took a look at their blog post from yesterday and suddenly realised they are sneaking up on the inside rail of everyone. Google and Yahoo seem to be occupied keeping the lid on top of a giant can of worms, whilst Bing continue to be make some very notable break throughs in search technology.Just take a look at this post: Connecting people, places and things (warning - article may seem like never ending novel!)If you stick with it you can see how Bing are clearly trying to address problems, adapt to demand and offer genuine alternatives to a very dated search model. They must be loving the tiff currently embroiling the search engine rivals, meanwhile sneaking off to the garden shed and getting on with their project without anyone noticing. Google should be wary.
Google have taken the plunge and announced reforms to the way they deal with news articles in search. That is basically an admission that they have been profiting unfairly from online news despite earlier protests that they hadn't. The pressure was building and perhaps this middle ground proposition of limiting free access to news sites will defuse the tension which must be a cause of concern. The idea in principle, is to give publishers the right to select how many times a consumer can click through to their site without being forced to subscribe. But there's a problem here and that's the potential danger of forcing potential customers to other publications. For example, if you know you're at your (let's say) five a day limit for a particular paper, you may well choose to view a breaking story with a rival, in order to avoid any sort of payment. With so many competitors reporting the same things you'd have to have a real loyalty to one brand in order to avoid 'payment dodging'. So I doubt whether this reflex reaction from Google will feed the beast determined to bring change, but it does prove Google are anxious, and proves it's the publishers who are taking control.
It's interesting to note that Yahoo are the only search engine I've come across who have published not only a list of top 10 search queries for 2009, but also a 'top 10 business success related' queries. That's about the closest I've come to finding insight into business search trends from the search giants. The list is as follows: 1. Facebook 2. Twitter 3. Hulu 4. Bing 5. iPhone 6. LinkedIn 7. Dollar Stores 8. Palm Pre 9. Rosetta Stone 10. KindleIt's no surprise to see social networking sites Facebook and Twitter at the top but let's be honest, this list still doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to analysing business search from the previous year. It's just another sign that if you're a business looking for information online, search engines are not catering for your needs. Oh and just so you know, swine flu and Susan Boyle were this years top breaking stories...sigh.
