The Discovery Dilemma

I’ve been playing around with an idea about the search world for the week or so but needed a hook to hang it. Fortunately, Google’s kick-ass, blow-your-socks-off fourth-quarters results are just the ticket.
So here’s the premise: as the amount of digital content increases (blogs, user-generated content, video, Web sites, etc.), it’s getting more difficult to discover new material - something that could be described as a discovery dilemma. There are for example, more than 50 million blogs but how do you find the ones that are the most appealing to you? There are search engines such as Technorati, aggregators such as Techmeme, and tools such as TheGoodBlogs. But what about other ways to discover blogs?

The same discovery challenge is happening within the music industry, which is struggling because it can’t find a way to harness P2P as a discovery tool. This is why so many people are excited about Pandora, which is using algorithms to recommend music to people, and LastFM, which is using the recommendations of other people to promote new music. Going back to blogs, wouldn’t it be great to have a Pandora or LastFM to discovery new blogs. Something that recommends new blogs based on the blogs you already read.

The video industry has an even bigger challenge because how do you tag video efficiently so people who are interested, for example, in watching Diet Pepsi-Menthos videos can finally them easily. Even the search industry is still trying to improve the quality of its results, which is why you continue to see venture capital poured into new players such as Powerset, which is trying to out-Google Google by using natural language search as a better mouse trap.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve done a good job articulating the discovery challenge/opportunity. All I know is it’s getting more difficult to quickly and efficiently find the digital content that meets your specific needs and interests - whether it’s text, music and video. This is probably a post I’ll re-visit as I give the idea more thought but it’s a start.

Technorati Tags:

Written by Mark Evans on February 2nd, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and Main Page.

Related articles

No comments

There are still no comments on this article.

Leave your comment...

If you want to leave your comment on this article, simply fill out the next form:

You have to be identified to write a comment.

Will Google Office Catch On?

So, it’s not surprising Google is apparently coming out with a Powerpoint-like service that will complete its online productivity suite portfolio - and, more important, give it the same arsenal as Microsoft Office. The question is whether it matters? Just because Google built it, does it necessarily mean users will come?

On my computer, I’ve got Office 2003 (no plans to upgrade to Office 2007) but I’ve also got an increasing number of documents on Google Docs, Spreadsheets and GMail. The Docs and Spreadsheets documents were created so I can easily share documents and spreadsheets with other people. While Google won’t replace Microsoft Office as the “go to” productivity suite any time soon, it is a nice complement to Office given I have yet to wade into the world of Microsoft Live.

But what will it take for Google Office to take major amounts of market share from Microsoft Office? There is a lot of enthusiasm for Web-based services but it’s difficult to see many people, particularly corporate-types, abandoning Office any time soon for Google. Why should Google Office be anything different as a competitive threat as WordPerfect or Open Office, which are, in theory, easier products for many people to embrace? (One different Google Office does have over WordPerfect and Open Office: it’s free. (Update: My bad, Open Office is free too).

That said, Google Office could get some more traction if wireless networks become more ubiquitous, and the use of Web-based services becomes more mainstream. One thing I have noticed in recent months is how Google-based services such as GMail, Docs & Spreadsheets and Google News have become key parts of my computing environment.

For more, check out Paul Kedrosky, who doesn’t care Google Office may not have all the bells and whistles as Office.

Technorati Tags: ,

Written by Mark Evans on February 5th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and Microsoft and Main Page.

Related articles

No comments

There are still no comments on this article.

Leave your comment...

If you want to leave your comment on this article, simply fill out the next form:

You have to be identified to write a comment.

Your Ad Here