The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
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Helms Deep - so who are the Orcs and who Humans?

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Microsoft guns for enterprise intranet search lead to a wee humorous discussion about how Microsoft seems to be shoring up the battlements around the enterprise to keep out the hordes a la The Battle Of Helms Deep (Lord of the Rings).

I s'pose that makes Microsoft the defenders and Google those trying to break in.

And much like the bomb that blows it all open I can quite happily see Google's Enterprise Search havinga similar affect on Fortress Microsoft in your Office. Once Google is in the Office/Sharepoint walls come a-tumbling down as Google Apps is spread.

Who do you think will win this battle?

Comments

  1. Unknown17 January 2008 at 09:12

    Hi Mike
    As any application gets too strong in the market it begins to generate forces against itself. For instance I've recently built a web site, and in the process I searched for many external links to support what I was saying. Google proved close to useless. I ended up using Copernic which gave me far better options. (I have Copernic Desktop Search installed on my machine)

    If Google and Microsoft are engaged in a battle "for your mind" they both lose. Modern people want to have independent minds. See my post on Lloyd Geering in the Open Future Blog. http://johnsveitch.blogspot.com/2008/01/being-modern-person.html

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  2. Mike Riversdale17 January 2008 at 13:51

    I don't think the battle is about "my mind" it's about "companies $$$s".

    As for the power of one search engine over another - that battle (outside an org) has been truly won by Google. However, it might not fit all circumstances - I don't use it to search for pictures as Flickr always returns better results ... at the moment. Horse for courses but Google for the majority just works fine.

    And, the semantic web will alter the playing field once again - if Google maintain their investment (I bet they do!) then they really have to fvck up big time to be knocked off the stop of the search pile.

    But search inside an organisation is very different ... Autonomy is probably number 1 and then ... who? If the battle inside the org ends up with a number 1 from the outside I see good things happening otherwise it's the walled mentality for a few more years - it will change but maybe slower than I'd like.

    And don't hold back linking to this blog ;-)

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  3. Anonymous4 February 2008 at 12:12

    If your analogy holds true, then Microsoft will win (with the help of some dwarf-tossing...)

    In an IT environment as locked down as the one I'm in now, Google Enterprise Search would not lead to a flood of Google Apps.

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  4. Mike Riversdale4 February 2008 at 20:31

    If your environment is so locked down then you're probably correct. However, the introduction of something from the "consumer world" (such as Google Search) is, in my experience, the thin end of the wedge for most IT environments. The experience is so vastly different from traditional systems, i.e. it just works.

    And I know, I'm just talking about search however finding information is only one step away from demanding the information is "useful" - that means (in it's authorship at least) being able to share and collaborate directly with it ... something traditional enterprise systems are shite at.

    In essence the demands generated just grows and grows and grows. The locked down environment is merely a symptom of the IT Department's inability to get it.

    They will, or be moved aside.

    ReplyDelete

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