June 4th, 2007

Google Office wins? Declares enterprise hierarchies 'dead'

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 12:32 pm

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Apps, Google Software Applications

Tags: Google Inc., Information Technology, E-mail, Donna Bogatin

What a difference six months makes? Apparently in the Google Enterprise (sales) world!

In Google Enterprise strategy: ‘Death to the hierarchy’” last November, I reported Michael Lock, Director of North American Sales for Google Enterprise, exhortation at the NYC Googleplex,

“Death to the (Microsoft) hierarchy”:

Given the “explosion” of unstructured data in the enterprise, “old methods of information management don’t work,” Lock asserted. He also offered a remedy: “Death to the hierarchy!”

Lock put forth personal anecdotes to proclaim “you don’t put email in folders” and declared GMail the victor over Outlook.

Lock spoke of the old (pre-GMail) Outlook days when he would “look forward” to his transcontinental commutes for six hours of time to “categorize email.”

Lock entertainingly, but pointedly, emphasized that Google solutions do not demand what he portrayed as labor intensive and inadequate user categorization via hierarchical folder structures. Lock then used his own GMail account to illustrate what he believes is the superiority of implicit organization via a single, intuitive search box, a Googley one. Lock proudly concluded that he has left behind hundreds of Outlook folders.

At the time, I asked Lock for a projection of when Google will succeed in bringing “Death to the hierarchy.” Lock offered that forward thinking enterprises are moving away from hierarchical data organization, but no specific date for an absolute demise of the “hierarchy” was provided.

Nonetheless in his return visit to the NYC Googleplex this morning, Lock said in the affirmative: “Hierarchies are dead.”

“Data has changed and it doesn’t come in columns and rows,” Lock underscored.

Lock provided the diverse audience of NYC professionals at the “Google @ Work” enterprise sales pitch with three key takeaways, “lessons that enterprise IT can learn from Google:

1) Fast is better than slow,
2) Simple is better than complex,
3) Assume chaos and deal with it.

Lock asserted the now familiar Google Enterprise rallying cry: Enterprise IT is in a sad state of affairs, but consumer friendly Google is to the enterprise rescue.

Lock on the antiquated enterprise way of doing IT business:

Define all requirements,
Buy vs. build,
Issue RFP,
Select vendor,
Do bakeoff,
Define implementation plan,
Customize application,
Build end-user training plan,
Deploy application.

The world has sped up, but how IT deploys has not, Lock deplored.

Why so enterprise conservative? Lock suggested. After all, Google is not so worried about getting things just right. Lock: “We put the product on the Internet before it is ready.” Why? “Fail quickly and learn from it,” Lock proclaimed.

Current delivery models have “insane” complexity, Lock warned. Take email, as a case study in bad enterprise business. Lock lampooned what current enterprise email operations entail:

Operating system,
Email servers,
security servers,
Backup storage servers,
Spam filer,
Content repositories,
Tape back-up,
Mobile delivery server,
Database to support content repositories.

The Lock ace in the hole: “Then there is that ‘Patch Tuesday‘ by some big vendor.”

What is the enterprise solution? It couldn’t be more simple, five letters is all it takes; GMail.

Lock nevertheless acknowledged there is still some enterprise reticence against “letting my email on someone else’s servers.”

How silly, though, Lock indicated. After all, he said, you are not afraid to put money in a bank are you?

To make his point Googley clear Lock showed a picture of a mattress, and then one of an ATM.

ALSO: Do Google Apps really trump Nintendo Wii and Apple TV?
Is Google Enterprise Search a joke? 
Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise!

June 1st, 2007

Salesforce.com CEO: Google is good, very good

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 5:29 pm

Categories: Enterprise, Google

Tags: Salesforce.com Inc., Google Inc., Donna Bogatin

The Salesforce.com rendezvous with Google destiny is set: Tuesday, June 5.

Marc Benioff, CEO, affirms “It’s good to be with Google,” as cited by MarketWatch.

How good is the multitude of ”stuff” that Google offers? Google mapping services is looking Googley good, to Benioff.

How good will Google and Salesforce.com be together? There is already Google love going on at Salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com runs a dedicated “Salesforce for Google AdWords” blog in conjunction with its “Salesforce for Google AdWords” initiative:

Create ads on Google,
Track leads in Salesforce,
Measure ROI.

Salesforce for Google AdWords debuted last year, designed as a for fee program, based notably on technology obtained with the Salesforce acquisition of Kieden Corporation, a third party search marketing company.

In April, Google announced a direct AdWords reseller arrangement with Intel, as I analyze in Google piggybacks on Intel: What about Intuit?. The Intuit-Google AdWords resale deal in QuickBooks, announced last year, has not met with any apparent success.

What if Salesforce.com were to now push Google Apps Premiere, however, rather than just AdWords? The Salesforce.com direct enterprise sales force may be looking good, to Google Enterprise. 

Benioff also underscores “providing a product that integrates Google services has long been something customers ask for.” What particular Salesforce.com product, integrating which specific Google services?

Suspense is good, as Salesforce.com wants to assure all tune in Tuesday for the latest “groundbreaking” Google alliance news.

ALSO: Google Gears: NOT a Microsoft killer
Google Office vs. Microsoft? Maybe

May 30th, 2007

Google Developer Day? Next year Chicago

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 12:59 pm

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Software Applications

Tags: Donna Bogatin

Google Developer Day is but hours away, and Google Engineering love is already in full promotional swing.

Google touts the event as a worldwide engineering fest, but the world’s software engineers are not all in agreement.

SEE: Does Google play fair in Open Source? and Microsoft gains over Google in Holy Land

While Google proudly notes the need to move the Mountain View meet-up to San Jose, due to overflow demand, Google Engineering nevertheless perseveres in its never ending quest to feed Google’s insatiable demand for the “best and the brightest” software developers (rocket engineering experience preferred, but not required) the world has to offer, from the Big Apple, to Down Under, and now, to the Windy City.

I have been chronicling the Google 2007 engineering staffing quest:

Microsoft beware: Google to grab Seattle engineers

Google challenges NYC software engineers

Google goes Down Under: G’day Google! 

Google’s Adam Bosworth to NYC technologists: Speed rules

Google is currently in an Illinois frame of mind, Chicago. Google solicits:

Despite the fact that we have dozens of offices worldwide, whenever I tell people that I work for Google in Chicago, most of them respond “Google has an office in Chicago?” Then I proceed to tell them that yes, we have a sizeable sales office in downtown Chicago (which is now in its sixth year!), and yes, we have a few engineers camped out in one corner (near the cafe and the foosball table, of course).

Well, now we’re decking out the office with binary clocks and caffeinated soap because Google is hiring engineers here.

 

Why now?

Our Chicago engineers are currently working on Open Source and developer tools, and we’re ramping up other interesting data-centric projects. So if you’re an innovative engineer who likes to launch early and often, build world-class software, and be a part of a small upstart team, then we want you.

Of particular note is that Google believes Chicago is as obscure to the American workforce as Sydney, Australia is!

In pitching a Google Engineering open house in Mountain View for the Australian operations, the Google host said:

When I mention I’m an engineer in our Sydney office, I’m often greeted with looks of surprise: it seems many people aren’t aware of our Australian presence.

Perhaps Google needs to be more open then. Google just shut off access to its NYC engineering recruitment efforts, dubbed NYC Speaker Series, as I report in Google CEO Schmidt on ‘Personal Democracy’: Up For Sale.

If Google truly is concerned that no one knows about Google Australia or Google Chicago, it wouldn’t be so shy (secretive) .

ALSO: Google has a (big) people problem and
Why Google is more dangerous than Microsoft

May 29th, 2007

Microsoft gains over Google in Holy Land

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 7:14 am

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Software Applications, Microsoft

Tags: Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Israel, Donna Bogatin

In Microsoft ‘proud’ to trump Google in search last month I reported a Microsoft victory over Google in Israel, in enterprise search.

Microsoft continues to make inroads over Google in the Holy Land.

When Microsoft and Google were recently put to a head to head search performance test to vie for an Israeli Government enterprise contract, Microsoft was selected as the vendor, not Google.

Microsoft Israel CEO Dan Yamin on the victory:

This is a significant achievement because this is one of the largest websites in the country. This is a worldclass achievement because searches on enterprise websites is becoming very competitive and we are very proud to have beaten Google.

 

Now, as Google is poised to intensify its PR evangelism for its touted “Developer Day” on Thursday, an Israeli software developer is questioning just how committed Google really is to software developers, in Israel.

 

(SEE What is Google’s Open Source end game?)

 

Eran Sandler, proud “geek” and developer for a Web start-up based in Israel, asks: “Google Israel, Where art thou in the developer community?”

 

Sandler underscores Google Developer day is “happening at 10 different locations worldwide, but NOT in Israel”:

I know there are suppose to be two development centers in Israel, one in Haifa, which I know is located in MATAM cause you can see it from road #2 leading from Tel Aviv to Haifa near Intel and Microsoft Haifa, but I have no idea where the other development center in Israel is located, other than the fact that its suppose to be in the Tel Aviv area.

I don’t know how active Google is in the development community in other countries besides the US but I think that Google Israel, and the rest of Google, as well as the rest of the development community in Israel will benefit if they’ll open up a bit and become a major player in the development community.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has “figured this out a long time ago,” Sandler notes:

There are quite a few communities that meet once a month. There is also at least one full time Microsoft employee, at least that I know of, that is logistically leading this effort and making sure everyone stay happy and use MS products. I don’t even talk about the big events Microsoft Israel holds at least once a year to show off new things and to educate people about the new technology.

I guess this effort paid off since most of the companies developing in Israel today, and quite a few startups, even in the web 2.0 arena, are using Microsoft technologies and not Open Source products and technologies.

SHALOM!

ALSO: Why Google Fears Microsoft, big time and
Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)!

May 21st, 2007

Microsoft beware: Google to grab Seattle engineers

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 3:54 am

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Software Applications, Microsoft

Tags: Donna Bogatin

“Seattle is just very rich in engineering talent,” Google lustfully acknowledges.

“We’re running out of space in our other offices there, and we’re continuing to grow,” a spokesperson said. Solution? Expand in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, to make room for up to 240 more Googlers, “Seattle” Software Engineers, in particular.

Google now has an engineering center in Kirkland and sales offices at another building in Fremont. The new space will be used to house more engineers, according to Seattle Times reports.

Google trumps Microsoft in Seattle I reported last month:

Kirlkland called, and a (Micro)Softie responded!

David Bennett, Microsoft Software Development Engineer, happily announces to the world at a Microsoft TechNet blog that: I just accepted a position to work at Google up in Kirkland, so still in Seattle.  I think this will be a good change and a fun job. 

Fun indeed, as Google “Massage Expert” Reza Behforooz (and sometimes Software Engineer) can attest to:

“Life at the Googleplex is often full of fun surprises,” she giddily shared at the Official Google Blog just last week:

One day, I was asked if I could do a massage interview. I was already a big fan of our massage program, and I was familiar with doing interviews at Google, but I didn’t know about massage interviews. Regardless, it sounded Googley, and I decided to help.

Getting a massage at work is a favorite perk among Googlers. As with anyone we hire, our massage therapists have to go through an interview process…but the actual interviews are a little unique. We ask the therapists to do what they do best — give massages. And as Googlers, it is our duty to help with the hard task of receiving table or chair massages as part the interviews. Though we do have to write detailed feedback about the massage, just like any other interview, in this interview, all I had to do was close my eyes and relax. Who knew interviewing could be so easy!

NOW, if Google could only do something about that other Googley “perk”: GOOG!

ALSO: Google trumps Microsoft IE7 in search war? and
Why Google Fears Microsoft, big time

May 17th, 2007

How Microsoft battles Google in Search warfare

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 11:21 pm

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Apps, Google Software Applications, Microsoft, Search

Tags: Google Inc., Enterprise Search, Microsoft Corp., Donna Bogatin

Is Google Enterprise Search a joke? I noted yesterday, given Google was the butt of jokes at the Enterprise Search Summit in New York City earlier this week. Kevin Gough, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Google Enterprise, made a case at the Summit for why Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise!

Gough’s counterpart at Microsoft, however, believes Enterprise customers want an integrated business productivity platform, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), not a consumer turned business search product, such as Google Search Appliance.

As Group Product Manager for MOSS, Jared Spataro is on a who needs Google in the enterprise mission.  “Sometimes it takes a lot to wake a sleeping giant.  But when he finally stirs, you’d better be ready for a fight,” Spataro told me.

I met with Spataro at the Summit to discuss the Microsoft Enterprise Search go-to-market strategy and how Microsoft fights Google in the enterprise trenches.

“Enterprise search is our business, it’s our house and Google is not going to take that business,” Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, assured business partners last July. Spataro told me it is his job to “deliver on that commitment and ensure that we marshall all of our resources and assets to compete effectively in this market.”

The business search market is a high-touch one. Spataro segments the market into 1) low-end, commodity, 2) high-end, specialized and 3) emerging, enterprise.

The market  environment is evolving; Spataro described to me three basic types of customer buying behaviors:

Low-end growth is being driven by a buyer we’ve labeled the “transactional buyer.”  S/he buys based on brand and the ease of the eval/purchase/install/maintenance experience.

High-end growth is being driven by a buyer we’ve labeled the “specialized buyer.” S/he typically sees the search problem fundamentally as a complex information management problem.

Between the two extremes in the market, growth is being driven by two types of buyers: A “strategic buyer” who tends to see search as a part of a larger infrastructure strategy; and A “silo buyer” who just wants to buy search and usually follows a “standard IT procurement process” to do that (requirements, short-lists, evals, PoCs, etc.) 

Google’s Mini business targets the low-end, transactional buyer, Spataro said, “But increasingly IT purchases of Search are being driven by “silo buyers” or “strategic buyers,” both of whom sit in IT and both of whom have high expectations for a potential solution”:

The most interesting trend we’re seeing is the increasing involvement of the “strategic buyer” in the search decision process. This buyer—who tends to be a senior IT exec with responsibility for a broad set of IT investments—understands the value of an integrated business productivity platform. This gives us a base to work from in making the Search discussion not just a conversation about the here-and-now problem of Search, but a more productive dialogue about the value of Search as a part of a broader productivity investment.

What are the similarities and differences between Enterprise Search from Microsoft and Google? The answers drive the Microsoft vs. Google trench warfare for the Enterprise Search customer.

Spataro told me Microsoft takes a “very straightforward, two-step approach,” in walking IT buyers thorough a comparative value proposition analysis:

We start with a baseline overview of core Enterprise Search capabilities.  Google’s Search Appliances are fundamentally based on the theory that if you take web search and slowly modify it over time you’re going to get it right for the Enterprise. We disagree.  We think that if you start with web search and slowly modify it over time, you end up with web search that never quite crosses the threshold of what IT Professionals need to do the job right.

Spataro on core Microsoft vs. Google differentiators:

Security – We offer the ability to index access control lists and the ability to do real-time security trimming.  Google does only real-time security trimming.

Scalability and High Availability – We offer an architecture that allows IT Professionals to create a search topology/deployment that meets their needs—for scalability, high availability or both.  Google is locked to the Appliance model and is limited in both dimensions.  Our single-index alone scales to more than 20 million more docs than Google; The ability to cluster web front ends and query servers and support for dedicated indexing hardware makes all the difference.

Customization/Development – Our search solutions are built on a technology stack that no one in the industry can match, allowing customers to easily customize the look and feel with dedicated design tools or to access our web service interfaces or object models to fully customize the solution.

Relevance – Our relevance algorithms were designed for the Enterprise and have been tuned for the environment. Google’s relevance algorithms started with Page Rank, an approach that works well on the Internet but that doesn’t yield good results inside the firewall.

Unstructured Content Search – We support more content sources out of the box (including Lotus Notes) and have an open architecture for writing connectors to other unstructured content sources.

Structured Content Search – The Business Data Catalog allows customers to connect to structured data systems and line-of-business systems with no-code, providing the ability to both index the information and perform “business actions” on the results; Customers can build composite apps that use search as an interface for really driving business processes. In contrast, Google’s OneBox is a clever—but limited—federation framework that hard-codes how you interface with specific systems.

Manageability – Our approach to meta-data management is far superior, allowing customers to easily manage information the system finds as it crawls content; Google has no ability to manage metadata.

Desktop Search – Windows Desktop Search, for Windows XP, and Windows Vista provide rich, actionable search interfaces.  We do extremely well when customers compare our offerings to Google Desktop; Google Desktop is browser-based and has the limitations—both in presentation as well as interaction—of typical browser-based applications.

Spataro on the key Microsoft is “more than Search” IT sales proposition in the Microsoft vs. Google Enterprise battle :

Enterprise Search from Microsoft is available as a stand-alone server, but can also be purchased/deployed as an integrated piece of MOSS.  For the price of Search from Google, an Enterprise can purchase Search plus a collaboration platform, plus a portal platform, plus a content management platform, plus a forms/workflow platform, plus a BI/dashboarding platform.

DOES MICROSOFT HAVE A WINNING ENTERPRISE SEARCH CASE?

ALSO:  Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)! and
Is Google Office really an enigma? and
Google user data cloud: Do you trust it? and
Google Apps goes Enterprise Professional: $5000 please

May 17th, 2007

Is Google Enterprise Search a joke?

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 8:36 am

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Apps, Google Software Applications

Tags: Google Inc., Enterprise Search, Donna Bogatin

Why can’t Google make any serious money in Enterprise Search? I asked Google’s point man just that yesterday, at the Enterprise Search Summit in New York City.

(See Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise!)

Just as he did not have a convincing answer, Google does not have a winning Enterprise Search case.

While the two-day event is touted to IT managers as the place to be for “learning strategies and building the skill sets you need to make your organization’s content not only searchable and findable,” consumer search king Google was not only the talk, but the joke, of the Enterprise town.

From keynote information expert insights to blustery IT consultant pitches, Google was a target of derision, an unusual position for “everyone’s favorite garage band” to be in.

From an “I don’t want to be lucky in enterprise search” allusion to the “silly” consumer facing “I’m feeling lucky” button at Google.com, to a Googzilla pastiche of Google’s Sergey & Larry founding duo, Google Enterprise was not accorded the hero’s welcome Google’s YouTube has become accustomed to.

No need to worry for Google, though. The company actually touts that Googley consumerization of the Enterprise is the “serious” way to do business search, as Kevin Gough, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Google Enterprise reasserted yesterday at the Summit.

Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise! I reported on the Gough presentation yesterday.

Shouldn’t enterprise love be of the tough variety though? No, Gough held up YouTube (surprise?) and MySpace as examples of IT innovation to be emulated in the enterprise!

Perhaps Gough didn’t get the Google memo that “recreational” YouTube and MySpace are deemed NOT to be enterprise friendly, banned by the U.S. Department of Defense, in fact:

The Defense Department will begin blocking access “worldwide” to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander. The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department’s networks, according to Bell.

This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,” the memo said, AP reports.

Is a Google to the enterprise consumer rescue really a winning strategy? No, but it is the only one Google can “seriously” have, given the Google Enterprise products are rooted in Google consumer products, which Google proudly underscores.

Everyone loves Google: Bring Google search love into the enterprise therefore, to ensure employee happiness, such is the core selling proposition of Google Enterprise Search, augmented by slides showing how the Google Enterprise Search product actually looks and feels just like the beloved Google.com.

I asked Gough how Google will specifically be able to significantly grow Google Enterprise revenues, given the core products have 1) low price points and 2) no services income stream.

Gough asserted the low price point of Google Enterprise offerings make them a “natural extension” for Google’s existing small business AdWords customers. Google continues to rely on word of mouth buzz, as well, he said.

Sounds like the same pitch CEO Eric Schmidt is using to upsell AdWords customers to Google Radio ads!

Google Radio Ads: NO match for AdWords I analyzed yesterday.

AND Google Enterprise can NOT win with small business AdWords customer upsells.

UPDATE: How Microsoft battles Google in Search warfare

ALSO:  Google vs. Microsoft Office? NO: vs. Open Office (.org)! and
Is Google Office really an enigma? and
Google user data cloud: Do you trust it? and
Google Apps goes Enterprise Professional: $5000 please

May 16th, 2007

Google to big business: Google love belongs in the Enterprise!

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 9:58 am

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Apps, Google Software Applications

Tags: Donna Bogatin

Consumerization of enterprise technology is the way to both employee happiness and better decision making, was the Google Enterprise message conveyed this morning at the “Enterprise Search Summit” underway in New York City, courtesy of Kevin Gough, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Google Enterprise.

Enterprise IT is “falling behind,” Gough asserted. It is not the hard working enterprise IT professionals (the executives that hold the keys to IT budgets) that are at fault, however, Gough assured. No, it is the “IT industry” that is behind the times and both software and hardware need to “catch up with what is going on in the consumer market,” fast.

In a presentation headlined “Search as a Decision Making Tool,” Gough made the Google case for why its Enterprise Search products “bridge the gap” between consumer technology and business technology.

Gough graphed a “hockey stick strange phenomenon,” to illustrate his thesis that while user technology satisfaction in the consumer space is on the rise, user technology satisfaction in the enterprise has not kept pace.

Gough warned that business technology is losing the “innovation race,” to the likes of consumer favorites YouTube, MySpace, Tivo, and AOL Instant Messenger…

Not to worry, however, search can “help bring business technology back,” Google Enterpise Search that is.

“Experience the joy of offering your team the products they already know and love!,” is the familiar Google Enterprise refrain:

Users are spoiled by the experience and ease of use they get while searching information on Google.com. They wonder why they have to spend so much time looking around in different places for the enterprise information they need to do their jobs. After all, they can find all the information “out there” through a single box, the Google search interface.

Gough believes enterprises ought to give their users the “interface they are familiar with and using on a daily basis”; Search in business can have the same impact as search on the Web, if Google is invited into the enterprise.

Google’s success on the Web has created new user expectations within the enterprise as well, Gough asserted, which is driving a move towards the consumerization of the enterprise.

Google Enterprise Search advantages, according to Gough: Easy User Interface, Speedy Results, Massive Storage and, for “better decision making,” Google OneBox for Enterprise.

GOOGLE ONEBOX FOR ENTERPRISE PITCH

A new feature of the Google Search Appliance and Google Mini, Google OneBox for Enterprise delivers relevant, real-time information from enterprise sources, such as CRM, ERP and business intelligence systems, based on a user’s search query. Google OneBox for Enterprise can provide users with secure access to everything from simple phone book listings to graphs of inventory levels and sales trends. Current OneBox partners include Cisco, Cognos, Employease, Netsuite, Oracle, Salesforce.com, and SAS - and the list keeps growing. Google OneBox for Enterprise will help your users:

Make informed decisions faster - Easily and access real-time information from enterprise systems using a single search box.

See the big picture - View all sides of an issue with relevant information from multiple systems presented in a unified user interface.

Focus on what’s important - See only OneBox results that are relevant to their search query.

View only the appropriate information - Securely access only the content that they are allowed to see, respecting all access control capabilities of the respective enterprise systems.

Access even more data sources - We’re launching with a great set of OneBox partners. Better still, we’ve made it easy to build your own OneBox module to reach your specific data sources.

Gough proudly noted Google CEO Eric Schmidt privileged Google Enterprise at the company’s annual shareholder meeting last week, touting it will be “Search, Ads and Apps” for Google from here on in.

In the Q & A, I asked Gough how Google Enterprise specifically intends to accelerate its growth within Google, given that, to date, Google Enterprise has not had a “material” impact on Google, according to Google’s SEC flings.

Google Enterprise has been around for five years, has “more than” 7000 customers and a cross functional team of about 300, Gough said. Nevertheless, Google Enterprise sales still account for less than 1% of Google’s revenues.

I asked Gough how Google will be able to significantly grow Google Enterprise revenues, given the core products have 1) low price points and 2) no services income stream.

Gough expressed confidence in Google Enterprise’s ability to continue to execute on its mission of further enhancing its business offerings for “robust, scalable and secure search across virtually all the information in a company.” Business friendly implementations are also a focus, such as SLAs and 99.9% uptime guarantees, Gough noted.

Gough also believes the low price point of Google Enterprise offerings make them a “natural extension” for Google’s existing small business AdWords customers. Google continues to rely on word of mouth buzz, as well.

On the Google Apps front, I asked Gough if on June 1, 2007, Google Apps Premier will be “for fee.”

Gough told me, “We will be announcing a Google Apps for fee plan very soon.”

UPDATE: How Microsoft battles Google in Search warfare and
Is Google Enterprise Search a joke?

May 15th, 2007

Can Web 2.0 really save the planet?

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 6:13 am

Categories: Enterprise, Social Capital, Social Software, Social Web, User-Generated Content, Web 2.0

Tags: Web, Community, Web 2.0, Business Objects, Donna Bogatin

Chad Hurley, the worldwide Web 2.0 video king, hailed before the U.S. Congress last week that his YouTube “community” is helping “children in Africa.” 

BUT, can the entire Web 2.0 community save the WHOLE planet?

Business Objects, a self-described “pioneer in business intelligence since the dawn of the category,” believes the dawn of a new civilization is upon us, thanks to “our collective IQ being put to a higher purpose, solving the world’s great problems,” courtesy of an “Application Revolution.” 

To coincide with the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit under way in New York City, Business Objects is launching Insight (Insight.businessobjects.com), touted as an “exciting new online community dedicated to seeing what happens if data lovers, business thinkers, technologists, academics, visual artists and others put their brains together to discover new ways of sharing ideas, analyzing information, and working together in a global mind grid.” 

First real-world issue up for collective resolution?

One of the biggest problems facing the planet today:Reducing our environmental impact on the world. 

Can Business Objects really harness a “global mind grid” though, even if it is for a greater global good? 

Insight may be a new age “green” friendly Web 2.0 community building platform, but it is “challenging” global minds the old fashioned way, with promises of the global currency: greenbacks.

I asked George Paolini, the lead architect of Insight, if the community efforts are for "the planet," why is the lure of monetary rewards necessary? 

The initial challenge is an environmental cause that is topical but there will others much more mundane to the average reader, but of heightened interest to the company or organization sponsoring the challenge and business analysts who love to solve tough problems.

The core of the Insights platform is the notion of a community “challenge,” to “move beyond transactional relationships, like MySpace and LinkedIn, to true collaboration”:

Think about a problem your organization faces, the big, intractable, Gordian knot one you’ve been unable to solve. When you’re ready to discuss, fill out a challenge submission form. We’ll be in touch to figure out how the Insight community can help.

The Insight leadership team reviews every challenge application individually. If a challenge is selected for feature consideration, we contact the organization to discuss working together to articulate the problem to the community and to publish the data the community will need to help solve the problem.

We will then post the “finalists” to the Insight community for ranking and the top vote getter will be “sponsored,” which means Insight will organize the challenge and post a financial reward for solving the problem.

For those challenge submissions that aren’t selected, don’t worry, you can still tap into the community for help. And, of course, you can always resubmit for sponsorship.

I asked Insight's Paolini how the Insight leadership team evaluates proposed challenges:

Challenges will be judged based on several factors, including the complexity of the problem to be solved–the more unique, the better, since this will provide a learning experience that we can then repurpose as a case study–the amount of data the company or organization can share, and the interest of the Insight community.

Monetary rewards will be “judged” by both Insight and the company or organization sponsoring the challenge.

Business Objects aims to not only save the planet via Insights though, it also seeks to “enlighten” businesses along the way.

In “Pursuing Business Enlightenment,” Timo Elliott, senior director of strategic marketing for Business Objects, responsible for evangelizing the use of business intelligence (BI) to major organizations worldwide, declares at the Insights blog:

In history, Age of Enlightenment thinkers were the first to believe that systematic, scientific thinking could be applied to all areas of human activity. We're living in the Age of Information, which has brought into existence vast amounts of data, but all too often only specialized acolytes with the right technical incantations have been able to coax out its benefits.

Business Objects is promoting “business enlightenment” to bring businesses “out of the Dark Ages”:

Most organizations around the world are still in the dark, struggling to get visibility into the essential trends that shape their daily business. But many are coming into the light, using information to transform the way they do business, becoming more efficient, better managed, and more competitive. They’re innovating by integrating their data, turning it into information, and delivering it widely across and beyond their organization.

People that lead successful BI projects to transform their businesses can rightfully be called heroes, Elliott asserts.

In Insights, Business Objects is up for some big challenges, solving the world’s problems and making the world’s corporate executives heroes.

ALSO: Social Capital Theory Meets Web 2.0, by Donna Bogatin

May 9th, 2007

Google Analytics: Should Google be minding YOUR Web business?

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 7:07 pm

Categories: Enterprise, Google, Google Software Applications, Metrics

Tags: Google Inc., Web, Analytics, Google Analytics, Donna Bogatin

Google is doing a full court press for “V2” of Google Analytics. 

Occam’s Razor blog by Avinash Kaushik, an “independent consultant” and author of “Web Analytics, an hour a day”:

Version 2 is so radically different and provides such a compelling value proposition to users of web analytics that I am excited to write a blog post about a product (the first time I have done this in 11 months of existence of this blog).

I am also the Analytics Evangelist for Google but you’ll see that I am so excited about GA V2 not because I consult for Google but because I believe that v2 is a leap forward for all of its current users and a new standard for the industry when it comes to interacting complex web analytics data.

Why is Kaushik gushing from his analytics heart for the product he is paid by Google to evangelize?:

1. Notice the awesome new data interaction model.
2. Take the enhanced “data discoverability” for a spin.
3. Context is king! Find your context quickly.
4. Ahh…. Segmentation is just a step away.
5. Upgraded goodies: Schedule and email any report or dashboards, Better site overlay, Much nicer page level reporting and more.

Much of the Google Analytics V2 is aimed at presentation and interaction enhancements. Kaushik is effusive:

As you’ll use the tool you’ll see more and more examples of effective communication of data via a very well thought out UI that is perhaps the best one today amongst all web analytics tools. People underestimate the value of being pretty.

Kaushik can not be restrained: “The tool is easier to use, key metrics jump out to you and it is ever more easy to understand what is going one (if only all sexiness in the world was so productive! : ))”.

“It is both a blessing and a curse that there so much data that we have access to,” Kaushik notes. The Google Anlaytics curse he alludes to is hardly a bad one, though:

As you use the tool you’ll find many little and big ways in which the new UI makes it easier for you to drill down, drill up and drill around.

But what about Google’s drilling, “down, up and around” everyone else’s data!

Google solicits:

Track and compare all your ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, paid links, and keywords on Google and other search engines. Google Analytics tracks all online campaigns, from emails to keywords, regardless of search engine or referral source.

BUT is it really prudent for Web sites to open their back office to Google? Should Google really know how its AdWords customers are investing in online advertising with Google competitors?

Why did we develop this new version? Google asks and answers:

Since Google Analytics launched in November 2005, the demand for website analytics has increased significantly. Today there are hundreds of thousands of Google Analytics customers, and web analytics has moved from being a niche function to becoming a mainstream aspect of the business for companies of all sizes.

In other words, Web analytics is a mission critical function. As such, it should be handled accordingly, in-house or with a neutral third-party.

Google owned Analytics is not an arms length, neutral third party. Google has a vested interest in knowing and understanding Google Analytics data resulting from both AdWords campaigns and advertising campaigns placed with competitors. 

What does Google do with the information it creates about other Websites’ customers?

Who really knows? As is typical Google fashion, the Google Analytics Terms of Service, coupled with the Google Privacy Policy, are not clear cut and provide Google with ample discretionary room for exclusions, disclaimers and general “outs” to suit its purposes, whatever they may be.

Google Analytics offers marketing speak assurances about the sanctity of others’ business data:

Google takes the trust people place in us very seriously, and is pledged to safeguard the privacy of your corporate data. We understand that web analytics data is sensitive information, so we accord it the ironclad protection it deserves.

Unfortunately, where it counts, Google is not so iron clad. Below are excerpts of the Google Analytics documentation: How Google defines “Customer Data” that it collects on the customers of the Websites that use Google Analytics and what it says it has the right to do with the data it collects from the Google Analytics tracked Websites.

"Customer Data" means the data concerning the characteristics and activities of visitors to your website that is collected through use of the UTM and then forwarded to the Servers and analyzed by the Processing Software. "Servers" means the servers controlled by Google (or its wholly owned subsidiaries) upon which the Processing Software and Customer Data are stored.

Information Rights. Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy, information collected in Your use of the Service. Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties unless Google (i) has Your consent; (ii) concludes that it is required by law or has a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public; or (iii) provides such information in certain limited circumstances to third parties to carry out tasks on Google's behalf (e.g., billing or data storage) with strict restrictions that prevent the data from being used or shared except as directed by Google . When this is done, it is subject to agreements that oblige those parties to process such information only on Google's instructions and in compliance with this Agreement and appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Sounds good? The umbrella privacy policy which governs all Google actions leaves the Google door open for Google Analytics collected data “auditing, research and analysis,” by Google.

Google wants to “organize” all the world’s information for “safekeeping” on its servers throughout the world. Companies’ customer data, however, ought to be treated as mission critical, and therefore as proprietary.

The best place for proprietary safekeeping is in-house, the second best is a secure, disinterested, neutral third-party service provider.

The number one search engine and search advertising engine and contextual advertising engine and soon display advertising engine…is not a neutral third-party service vendor.

Moreover, it competes directly against all of the “search engines and referral sources” that it tracks in Google Analytics.

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