Editor's note:we offer our long-term sponsors the opportunity to write 'Sponsor Posts' and tell their story. These posts are clearly marked as written by sponsors, but we also want them to be useful and interestingto our readers. We hope you like the posts and we encourage you to support our sponsors by trying out their products.Coming soon to a mall near you: the Microsoft Retail Store.Yes, that's right: Redmond, Washington's favorite son wants a closer, snugglier relationship with you, the consumer.SponsorGiven Microsoft's relative lack of retail experience, and the fact that it plans to locate near its nemesis (well, one of its nemeses), the Apple Store, we wanted to help. So we came up with a list of ideas to help the big MS make its stores a hit.Warning: some of these are serious, others not so much. Which is which? You be the judge.Hold star-powered store opening events.Announce that Microsoft will celebrate all store openings with live skits featuring goofy bosom buddies Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.Hire the very best people to run the stores.You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so make sure your people have the track recordto pull this off.Offer diagnostic and repair services.If Geniuses can fix or replace any Apple-branded electronics still under warranty, then Microsoft's retail staff can do the same for stuff that sports stickers claiming things like "Windows Vista Capable."Build alliances with computer manufacturers to staff the Guru Bars.And why not? The big names have plenty riding on the launch of Windows 7. Besides, they've built up plenty of customer service expertise in places like Texas, California and Hyderabad. (Note: certain fine computer builders, like Bob &Doug's Corner Computer Emporium, might not get a seat at the Bar.)Train all staff to maintain the highest level of professionalism.For instance, make sure associates smile politely when a customer walks up, grins, says "Hello, I'm a Mac" and elbows them in the ribs.Display Windows-based hardware for people to try.Show how Windows runs on computers, smartphones and whatever else Microsoft wants to convince people to buy.Promote fan clubs to celebrate previous Microsoft consumer successes.Start with enthusiasts for Microsoft Surface, Windows Tablet Edition, Passport, Vista and Sidekick.Run workshops for business users.Exploit current holes in software available for the Mac. For instance, bring in experts to explain how to set up popular accounting packages and, for lawyers, legal practice management systems.Run workshops for creative users.Run workshops showing how Windows computer users can start their artsy projects (photo books, websites, music videos) right out of the box. Have the workshops led by cute little girls who end each seminar by saying "I'm a PC and I'm four and a half."Run safe computing workshops.Teach users the basics, like not opening all attachments, not clicking links in spam email and so forth.Run basic Windows repair workshops.Teach computer users how to: remove pre-loaded trial software; replace faulty .dlls; make changes in the Windows registry; manually uninstall software when Windows botches the job; effectively scan online forums for answers to other problems; and, when all else fails, reinstall Windows and all other software from the ground up.Create an X-Box gaming area.Preview the latest games, hold in-store tournaments and otherwise build excitement around Microsoft's gaming platform. Contain this area in a soundproof room away from workshops, ideally in the mall display window so that everyone can see how rockin' Microsoft is.Guerilla marketing (offense).Every day, send people to nearby Apple Stores to pose as shoppers, whine about how expensive Macs are, then proclaim loudly, "Maybe we should go PC."Guerilla marketing (defense).Prepare a list of canned answers to anticipated questions from Apple operatives. Of particular importance, be ready to explain how Microsoft's operating system is nota copy of Apple's.Offer kids play area.Create a low "play table" where kids can sit down and show their parents how easily they can figure out a Windows computer.Store closing.To tell shoppers the store is closing for the day in a way they're sure to understand, have the giant video wall display the Windows Blue Screen of Death.What do you want from Microsoft Retail Stores? Please tell us in the comments below.Discuss

  We write a lot about the battles for the enterprise, the merits of Sharepoint and Google's pitches into the corporate world.But it's always good to watch the new players who use existing open-source software to build something pretty quickly that people can use. OfficeMediumis a service that is a fit for the small business user with just enough social features to give it a decent chance of winning over companies looking to establish a community platform for their users.SponsorOfficeMedium is a web-based, intranet and collaboration software. It's developed on the Drupal platform so you know it has every possible module available to it for adding on if needed.Overall, OfficeMedium is a clean, easy to use intranet software. In the new world of the enterprise, every employee will create their own media. OfficeMedium provides an environment to fit with this emerging trend but with enough hooks to satisfy the needs of a business where keeping people in the loop is often mission critical.This front page has a clean UI with clear demarcation for recent content added or updated; comments; a calendar; a "shoutbox," for quick messages and a basic activity stream..The profiles we looked at have just a few fields for web sites but included a blog, personal and miscellaneous sites that the user may include. We'd add several more fields to this section to reflect the real media presence of the user. The blog environment has built in notifications that may be sent to users. Comments can be turned on, off or set to read-only.Overall, the social features are pretty decent but could use some improvement. For instance it's difficult to find tags that are associated with the user or the company. A nice, robust cloud tag would be excellent to have front and center on every page. The navigation down the right column clearly identifies what the system can do but we wonder if this could be consolidated in some manner to provide a richer activity stream.We'd also like to see rich media integration. Services like OfficeMedium can be fertile places for training and sharing marketing materials that may include videos. To have a place for them on the service would be quite handy.But on a basic level - OfficeMedium works. Perhaps what we suggest is beyond what the small business user is looking for in an intranet. But overall, they do a good job of covering the basics. Here's a summary of what they offer:Task and Event ManagementPersonal and Group CalendarsFile Sharing, Storage, and OrganizationContact ManagementArchivingFurther, the service provides the ability to integrate external parties with controls so the outside user can only see what is intended for them. That's a big plus as more often than before, users work pretty closely online with outside parties.OfficeMedium is $8 per user per month and $1 ore gigabyte. The first 512 megabytes are free. Discuss

  In a blog post this week, U.S. Navy CIORob Carey wrote that social media is a resource for the American military that should be used to build trust and collaborate, both within and outside the organization.In attempts to balance communication, transparency, and operational security, the military has encountered both practical obstacles and general criticism. In a recent podcast, Carey, he said, "Most social networking tools come with no rules of the road. As the Internet moves towards user-generated content, we thought there was a void we could fill... to mitigate some of the security risks associated with social media."SponsorBeyond risk management, Carey said, "Social media has a powerful collaboration engine associated with it."Generally, military organizations have the options to reach out directly to large IT companies to configure customized security profiles and inherent OPSEC protection for personnel; traditionally, however, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have not been particularly receptive to working within that type of culture or framework. From the sharing-and-access social media pole to the security/military pole, both sides are resistant to different approaches to shared and social information. Still, Carey is an advocate for the usefulness of these tools, even behind a military firewall."We must remain a learning organization. As the Internet evolves, so must our workforce and its associated skills. To that end, we must be able to embrace change," Carey wrote in his blog post. "Many of our processes are rooted in the Industrial Age and will need to move toward the Information Age to remain relevant in the coming years."With specific regard to social media and the American military, Carey stated, "Social media is an inherent part of the toolbox for members of the millennial workforce, while baby boomers are just adopting it. Social media tools should become the standard by which we can share and collaborate on information inside and outside the network boundaries."He also highlighted green initiatives, mobile working, and the use of modern technological tools in recruitment efforts.To see the Carey's office's Policy and Guidelines for Secure Use of Social Media by Federal Departments and Agencies, click herefor a full PDF.While Carey's optimism is to be applauded, one wonders what our military-minded friends will have to say about OPSEC vis-a-vis social media. The battlefield isn't really Foursquare-compatible, and the military might actually have the last plausible use case for censorship. Every servicemember is probably aware of existing regulations for Internet and social media use; how do you think Carey's goals and statements will affect the state of affairs on the ground, and do you feel such a shift is needed or welcomed? Let us know your opinions in the comments.Discuss

  This post is sponsored by IBM's A Smarter Planet blog.Today at the Web 2.0 Summit, Brady Forrest of O'Reilly Media ran a panel called Humans As Sensors. With him were four organizations doing innovative applications using sensors: Markus Tripp (Mobilizy), Deborah Estrin (Computer Science Department, UCLA), Sharon Biggar (Path Intelligence), Di-Ann Eisnor (Waze). Each of the speakers started by explaining what they do.SponsorWazeis a real-time crowd sourcing and live mapping application. It works on iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android. Di-Ann Eisnor explained that their service does "transactional cartography." It was initially launched in Israel, then launched in the U.S. just a few months ago. Eisnor said that Waze aimes to take sensor data from "entertainment to action." It started out being used to map objects, then people, now processes.Path Intelligenceis bringing online innovation to the real world, according to co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer Sharon Biggar. They are targeting the retail market - specifically shops in malls. She said that the online world is good at collecting data on user experience, but the local mall doesn't have that data. What Path Intelligence is doing is analogous to Google Analytics, said Biggar. It works by collecting sensor datas and anonymous pings from cellphones - it doesn't require downloads.Biggar said that what they are measuring is real-time behavior, "right now." One of their current aims is to help the offline retail industry cope with recession. At mall sites they respond directly to the way shoppers are behaving. They do this by installing sensors and accurately locating mobile phones indoors. They use that data to help businesses improve in the real world and in real time.Mobilizymakes the AR browser Wikitude, which we have covered extensively here on ReadWriteWeb. It works on mobile phones that have GPS and a compass. As we've explained before, Wikitude is overlaid information on the real world. What's next for the product? Mobilizy manager business development Markus Tripp said that they plan to open it for the public, so people can create content for AR. It will be in the same format as Google Earth.Deborah Estrinfrom the Computer Science Department at UCLA was on next. She explained that they are doing a lot of research into "participatory sensing." They are taking it from aggregators to personal apps. The use cases include specific civic and citizen data campaigns. She suggested that what they do is "twitter with a purpose," although she admitted that this was a cynical thing to say.Example apps include whatsinvasive.com- enabling users to provide data on what plants are invasive (weeds etc) - and Biketastic.DiscussionThe panel then had a discussion on where sensor and mobile-generated data is headed on the Web.Brady asked the panel about how users can trust the data, whether it be implict or explicit.Estrin from UCLA said that giving people visibility back into the data is key. Let people have legible feedback on the data. She also remarked that they always have "eyes on the process" - in other words, humans in the loop. So what they do is not entirely automated.Waze has learned from web 2.0 that you need to apply different weighting for different people.Brady asked next: what type of critical mass of people is needed for these kinds of apps?Di-Ann Eisnor from Waze said that it really depends on the app and its goals. She noted that for them Israel was an incubator / test bed. So they shot for half a percent of the market.Sharon Biggar from Path Intelligence agreed that it depends on the app and what you're trying to achieve. For them their focus is retail, so their comparison point (in terms of data) is what users had before they came along.Deborah Estrin from UCLA remarked that as you get more data, you get more value.Brady asked the magical Web 2.0 question: how do you all plan on making money?Sharon Biggar from Path Intelligence explained that their business model is built into what they do: retail. She said that retailers will pay for the data they provide. However she noted that these companies "need to get the sensors out there, somehow" - which is a cost to those businesses.Di-Ann Eisnor from Waze said that the "navigable data market" is worth $4B and is dominated by the big map data companies like Navteq. Waze sells their data at low cost, but she noted that Google is trying to disrupt the market. She admitted that this is shaking things up for Waze, but she thinks that location based services are coming into their own (which they are indeed, according to Morgan Stanley).Markus Tripp from Mobilizy said that they are a very new business, but he said they are generating revenue. He said that the main goal with Wikitude is to get reach and as much content as possible into its system. Brady asked as a final question: is Twitter the ultimate sensor?Sharon Biggar from Path Intelligence said that Twitter data is "another indicator of interest" - another piece of data to add to the equation.Discuss

  Web search, real-time search and social search. That's a pretty compelling combination and it's what both Google and Facebook put on the table today in a head-to-head competiton. Google's Marissa Mayer did a short, surprise demo today of an experimental Google feature called Social Searchbut don't mistake the understated announcement to mean this was a small move. The Web 2.0 Summit today has been jam packed with very big search moves.Both companies are hoping you'll come to their sites to search for what you're looking for, what people are saying about that topic and what your friends think. Microsoft is very much in the game, too. Here are some things to consider in this search war. It's a new fight - now including the real-time, social web!SponsorThe following is our attempt to piece all of this together, but the war rooms of each of these companies are no doubt buzzing trying to put together and understand the same details and more.Google's new Social Searchwill allow users to opt-in to having search results from content created by their friends on social networks around the web included in Google search results. Those friend connections could come from any number of sites that you and your friends have listed in your Google Profiles - but it won't include Facebook.That means it won't include very much, unless Twitter and Google Profiles become a lot more integrated.Microsoft announced today that Facebook status messages and other content from Facebook users with public profiles will soon appear in Bing search results. That's a huge change for Facebook. Bing also announced Twitter search integration, which is live now.Google announced a deal with Twitter todayas well. So Bing has Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has Bing-powered web search. Google just has Twitter, no Facebook search. Right now Twitter search is probably much bigger than Facebook (unless you're Facebook serving logged-in users), because only a tiny portion of the much larger number of Facebook users have opted-in to making their Facebook activity public. But Facebook has an explicit agenda to change that.One reason for that is that more public Facebook activity makes deals like the one it made with Bing today much more valuable. More now than ever, Google needs Twitter datato combat Facebook's social dominance - Facebook is five to ten times as big as Twitter today.Microsoft would rather you did all your searching from Bing but it does own a meaningful portion of Facebook. You can bet it wishes it owned more.No one is set to be the clear winner here, but with far more social activity and a multi-layered partnership with the first qualified web-search challenger to Google in years (Bing) Facebook may in fact have the strongest hand. It's going to be a wild ride and big moves are being made right now.Discuss

  Is today's news of major search engines' integration of Twitter posts in search results the herald of a mass extinction or a mass acquisition?According to tonight's conversations with key players in the space, the day's events and announcements could spell either or both. Every real-time search engine we spoke to has expressed every intention of weathering the storm on their current strategies,tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real-time_search_startups_on_googlebingtwitter_new.php';tweetmeme_source = 'rww';all of which center on providing an excellent UX though excellent product development. And all see the day's events as a validation of years of concentrated effort. But who will prevail, and who will profit?SponsorWe spoke tonight with Tobias Peggs of OneRiot, Gerry Campbell of Collecta, and Bill York of Wowd. We've had in-depth conversations with each of these real-time search engines in the past, and we're indebted to them for their insight.Gut ReactionsUniversally, these startups said that hearing today's Google/Microsoft/Twitter news was a welcome validation of their years of perseverance in real-time search."It's super exciting," siad Peggs. "There's been one way to search the web for 10 years, and we're looking at a total revolution in the way that people find information. It's a huge change in the industry. To see that feeling validated is awesome."According to York, "I don't think we could ask for anything better than an endorsement from the major players. This is nothing but good for us. Back when I started, the marketplace was not very receptive to a new strategy." York continued to say that he supported mainstream exploration of the real-time space, with the telltale caveat, "even if it means licensing someone else's information and community."Campbell said this new information is something Collecta has built into their corporate strategy. "This is something we heard rumors on and had anticipated. It was fully expected. Having been involved with one of the giants [AltaVista] at one time, it's quite obvious. It's something we've anticipated and part of how we structured our company."Thoughts on Product DevelopmentAll the startups in real-time search have taken various approaches to the monumental task of indexing the real-time web. Collecta has employed the XMPP technology that powers IM clients in order to push streams of information. OneRiot has a fascinating algorithm that indexes tweet content, links in tweets, and the content of the linked-to pages to serve relevant results. And Wowd has developed a SETI@Home-like distributed computing model to effectively harness and parse the dataset created by users of real-time technologies.Each company is proud of its hard-won advances and speculated on how Google and Microsoft will handle the data.Campbell told us, "I can't say Google will bring to real-time search. But it makes sense that any dataset will be part of their approach. This is the largest corpus of real-time data that has not been accessible. As a search practitioner, I think they're going to keep on with their ranking approach."York added that nothing unforeseen has yet been announced. "The Twitter thing, that's the kind of thing people have been expecting."But he also talked about the challenges of parsing real-time user-generated content. "I think the data stream is broader and shorter. There's more and more real time, and you need different architecture to keep up with it. It's important to have real filtering applied to a noisy, low-value data stream. We believe people are the key to finding the good stuff.""Knowing what goes into the product is quite eye-opening," said Peggs. "There's a tremendous lot of work to do once you've got tweets containing links, to process that information in real time and index the content on the page and render results based on content rather than just tweets. It's relatively easy for someone to spam Twitter with irrelevant links; but you've got to follow the links and index the pages and search against the content of the pages, not just the 140-character tweets. You also have to link to results based on relevancy, not just based on retweets."Follow the MoneyThe opportunities for monetizing a new and powerful stream of Google- and Bing-driven traffic are both exciting and confounding for these startups, some of which have not yet put into play their own ideas for generating revenue.As York noted, Google's and Microsoft's entry into real-time search represents a shift in the marketplace from these startups and their technology being a geek's plaything to being a new way to direct user attention and serve powerfully relevant advertising."Google is in the enviable position of having a high profit margin in the search business itself," he said. "It does fit their strategy to have as many eyeballs as possible, to get more people doing more stuff. We're interested more in matching personal interest profiles."Also, as Peggs noted, "OneRiot has an API that allows anyone to incorporate our results. We also have a real-time ad model."Collecta also has rolled out two APIs, one for general search results from the real-time web and one for XMPP-powered streaming data. Campbell has also hinted that their monetization plans are innovative, but his team has not yet released specifics."Having been involved in this growth of paid search several times over," said Campbell, "the creation of new technology creates new business opportunity. The monetization of search was a redefinition of online business models: You can advertise to users without being slimy. There's now an opportunity to make users even happier without distracting them from the page."Strategy: Beyond "Get Acquired Or Die"The startups in the real-time search space also universally expressed a commitment to current business strategies. Some seemed to have clearer exit goals than others, but all believe that their unique focuses on tech and product will allow them to survive the intrusion of Microsoft and Google into their arena.Campbell, like many of his cohorts at other startups, noted that Twitter is a small segment of the available content sources for real-time web information. He also said, "Engines that are based solely on Twitter are probably more dead-on in terms of competition [with Google]. The less-funded companies are in a position where they have to do something more clever and unique."Collecta, he said, is still figuring out their role in the story. "We are a push search engine," he told us. 'That is increasingly our defining characteristic. The perception of speed is critical, but it's not our most unique characteristic. Because we're based on XMPP, the chat protocol, we're pushing results as soon as possible."Said Peggs, "Our strategy doesn't change. We're focused on producing the most relevant web results based on not just Twitter, but also Digg and other services - a much wider pulse of the real-time web on the back end. And we continue to distribute those through our API."What's to Come for Real-Time Search StartupsEvery single startup we spoke to tonight expressed some trepidation about things to come."What happens to the bubble of startups in this space?" asked Campbell. "I hope they've had the foresight to see this through.""It doesn't really change our strategy," said a confident Peggs. "Two years ago, when you explained how this would change search, they looked at you like you were crazy."York's assessment of Wowd's place as an open-sourced approach to a problem now being tackled by major corporations was also optimistic. "When you're a startup company competing with established players, there are always reasons to be cautious. We believe the approach we're taking is a great way to go. It's different, even than what you've heard today. We think this approach isn't a gimmick; it is a fundamentally different approach."The bottom line, as in all verticals, is that once the major leagues take interest, some startups will sink and some will swim. Some will be acquired, and some will fail. Some may survive long enough to pose a legitimate challenge to the dominant players, but this circumstance is less likely.Let us know your prognoses in the comments, and stay tuned for developing coverage of this space and these startups from ReadWriteWeb.Discuss

  A group of UCLA researchers has determinedthat for middle-aged and older folks, using the Internet, particularly search, causes enhanced neural stimulation leading to better reasoning and decision-making.At a recent presentation at the Neuroscience 2009 meeting in Chicago, the scientists stated, "The results suggest that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults." Defying folk wisdom regarding old dogs and new tricks, the research was conducted on Internet users aged 55 to 78, about half of whom rarely used the Internet.SponsorPreviously, the same researchers proved that conducting searches online doubles brain activitation in older "digital natives" compared to older "digital immigrants."One of the authors of the study, UCLA psych professor Dr. Gary Small, said, "We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function." In other words, it takes just a matter of days for older first-time Internet users to catch up to their more experienced counterparts in terms of brain activity.Small also wrote iBrain, a book all about how technology use impacts brain functions.Here's how the study was conducted: The researchers found 24 people aged 55 to 78 whose brains functioned normally. Half were daily Internet users, and half were noobs.First, all the volunteers searched the web in a lab setting while the scientists took functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brains, looking at changes in blood flow in the brain. Next, the test subjects were sent home and asked to search the Internet for an hour a day for seven days over the course of two weeks. Their searches were based on assigned topics that required them to search the web, explore websites, and read. Finally, the participants returned to the lab for more scans while they searched for more information on different topics.What researchers found was that the Internet noobs' brains displayed activity in areas of the brain that govern language, reading, memory, and visual ability during both the "before" and "after" scans. However, their brains showed new and increased activity in the parts of the brain that control working memory and decision-making. The patterns were, in fact, similar to those found in the brains of the longtime daily Internet users.The UCLA team said that these changes occurred because search requires users to store information in working memory and also determine relevant details from datasets of competing pictures and words.The study was funded by the Parvin Foundation. Researchers included Susan Y. Bookheimer, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute at UCLA; Himaja Gaddipati, a UCLA neuroscience student; and Jennifer Brace, a UCLA doctoral student in neuroscience.Discuss

  Facebook began as a place for college connections, secluded from the prying eyes of the outside world, but today that era is officially over. Major Facebook investor Microsoft announced this afternoon at the Web 2.0 Summitthat it has closed deals to bring status messages from both Twitter and Facebook into the search results of Bing.com. Twitter search is live now, Facebook is forthcoming.Facebook is opening up to a search engine - that's very big news. Only content from accounts marked public will be indexed by Bing, but it's a sea change none the less. Facebook has an explicit, acknowledged agenda to make more people comfortable sharing more information publicly - once they do, that information will be searchable on Bing. This 'aint your big sister's Facebook anymore.SponsorFacebook opened on-site search across user profiles and messages late this summer. The company has been careful to only expose information from people who have opted-out of their own default privacy settings and we don't expect this Bing deal to be any different. While some people like Facebook because of the privacy settings, a growing number of users like it for the promotional and networking advantages that can be maximized with a public profile. You don't want to be public with your Facebooking? Facebook will respect that, but the company does hope you'll change your mind. Seeing some peoples' Facebook status messages show up in Bing search is likely to freak out people who aren't familiar with public profiles and have a strong interest in their own data remaining private.It's very unlikely that Bing will be allowed to cache the Facebook messages it serves up.Facebook status messages used to be entirely closed to outside search engines - and now they will not be.Even these public search results won't be full participants in the open web, though. It's very unlikely that Bing will be allowed to cache the Facebook messages it serves up. Facebook prohibits other software from keeping user data in cache because the company says users must be allowed to change privacy settings and have those reflected everywhere around the web that Facebook data could be found. That's an unusual arrangement for a search engine. It breaks one of the fundamental laws of the internet - that what you publish publicly once is public forever.Will the company make a similar deal with Google? Probably not. Twitter may have gone both ways, but Facebook's long-term ambition to challenge Google and its Microsoft backing will probably mean that the world's leading search engine will never be allowed to index activity on the world's leading social network. The public parts of profiles, yes, but activity? No.Say hello to the new Facebook, now a partial player in one public part of the rest of the web.Discuss

  Wikis, micro-blogs and collaboration technologies get a lot of attention for their use in the enterprise but one need remains constant.Search. Who wins the search battle will come home with a lot of prizes and big wins in the enterprise. Search may even prove to be a differentiation for companies that are choosing collaboration platforms.SponsorThere are a number of enterprise search vendors who are delivering search technologies. Companies like Open Textoffer a bridge between Enterprise 2.0 and Enterprise Content Management to make "2.0 content is both manageable and secure." Many of the enterprise search vendors are well-established. For our purposes, we are looking at enterprise search from a collaborative perspective. It's clear that Google has a leg up but the home-grown nature of services like Box.netmake them attractive alternatives. Microsoft Sharepointhas made some improvements to its search, which are worth noting.Google Search Applianceis a cornerstone of the company's strategy to reach into the enterprise market. It fits closely with Google Documents and Google Sites, its collaborative environments. The Google Enterprise group has launched what it calls a "self-learning scorer," (SLC) which analyzes employee clicks and behavior patterns to better the results that the user receives. Queries that get clicked will jump in the search rankings. In Google, people will often click on what they discover on the first page of the search rankings. Google calls this "trust bias." SLC uses a regression model to filter out trust bias to better understand the behavior patterns of the user. Google claims the improvement can work across any number of documents in the enterprise. What this does is create a self-improvement system, using analytics to improve the results.The impacts of this kind off development can be heard throughout the enterprise as business users discover a whole new community of tools that provide search functionality on top of their core offering. Box.net uses a mix of open-source technologies to broaden the capabilities of their collaborative applications. As information is added to the network, the system adds the information from the documents into a relevance algorithm. Users upload their documents into the Box.net environment, which gives the user the advantage of working across a finite universe as oppose to the great sea of the entire enterprise.This makes search a lot easier. Results can be served up to the user that may not have necessarily been requested. For instance, a marketing manager may do a search and get results that are not directly related to the query but are relevant, nonetheless.Microsoft has added new search functionality to Sharepoint 2010. Users may use query syntax while searching on Sharepoint. This means users may use "AND," "NOT," "OR" in searches. Microsoft has also added a"wildcard" functionality and a "faceted search."The wildcard search allows users to add incomplete words to the end of a search string. The faceted search pops up a tab on the left column of the page, allowing users to drill down to discover the data they are looking for.A major aspect of Microsoft Sharepoint is giving the IT administrator control over the functionality of the user environment. This is evident in Sharepoint 2010. According to Sharepoint Chick:Administrators can also configure the other categories that are used in the refinement panel based on managed properties and enterprise content management taxonomy nodes. That means any time a user wants a deep search functionality, the administrator has to go in and make the refinement.Google nor Box.net require IT intervention with their services. In Google, The SLC is continually sell-improving, eliminating the need for IT to get involved. Box.net's algorithms crawl the text of the customer's documents. Refinement is built into the product.To be fair, Sharepoint is looking across the great universe of data in the enterprise. But will enterprise customers look to Google for help in search across Sharepoint?From the Google blog:We are newly providing native integration for SharePoint out of the box, making indexing of SharePoint content 10x faster. Second, we are providing connectivity to Lotus Notes through Enterprise Labs. Third, we are expanding our support for file shares and databases, so organizations can connect to any file share or database in any format.The quest to provide full on search and analytics for the enterprise is only beginning. Smaller companies like Box.net are offering their own analytics with home-grown algorithms. In the meantime, Google is leveraging its search strength and Microsoft is offering an improved user experience.It is clear that collaboration and search operate in the same universe. The provider that makes the bridge is our odds on favorite to bring home a roster of customers who recognize that their employees, partner and customers are creators, media makers. What they produce will morph in size as they get more comfortable as producer.Collaboration will work best if the user can easily search what is available to them. If the search doesn't work then the chances are the collaboration platform will likely falter, too.Discuss

  Comcast sees the writing on the wall: cable-based TV will not survive the next decade. Its value is fast eroding because it can't compete with on-demand, Internet-delivered TV across all screens. Unlike their music counterparts, TV executives have pulled their heads out of the sand in time and are working hard to survive this monumental shift. To do so, however, they need to choose the rightbattles to fight.SponsorComcast CEO Brian Roberts spoke at the Web 2.0 conferencein San Francisco yesterday afternoon. He was interviewed by Federated Media CEO John Battelle.I discerned three important nuggets from Roberts:Comcast will continue to invest in higher-bandwidth connections into homes.Comcast will invest in content more aggressively.Comcast will officially launch Hulu-competing Fancast.com by the year's end.The first two points make a ton a sense. The third point is... well, miscalculated.I am convinced Brian Roberts understands the challenges ahead. This is why Comcast and Time Warner (which also clearly "gets" it) have been aggressively pursuing a "TV Everywhere" model, which promises to give their subscribers exactly what they want: anytime, anywhere access to any TV content. They have to do thisto keep their customer bases.But in a TV Everywhere world, the role of the multi-system operator is diminished. Your cable or satellite TV provider will no longer be your only (legal) means of watching the current episode of HBO's Entourage. In a TV Everywhere world, Entourage will be available on literally thousands of websites and mobile apps, as long as you can authenticate yourself as a paying cable or satellite subscriber with the HBO package.In this world, the value of Comcast as a content distributor is eroded. Comcast risks becoming a "dumb pipe," providing little more than bandwidth. To avoid that fate, Comcast recognizes that it needs to move upstream and own or control the content itself. This is why it will buy NBCin the next few months.Moving upstream and investing in content is a smart move for Comcast.Moving downstream and competing with Hulu via Fancast.com is a bad move. Here's why:Hulu already has a huge lead, having aggressively grown its audience for more than a year now.Hulu would be the ideal launching pad for TV Everywhere, because of its mega-loyal and passionate audience.Comcast is about to own a third of Hulu. Ad revenue from Hulu will ultimately end up back in Comcast's coffers.In a TV Everywhere world, thousands of websites will likely present the same TV content as Fancast.com. It will be a terribly crowded space, with a ton of noise. The sites that perform best will be the ones that create the best user experience for viewing TV content.Comcast has a poor track record with UI and user experience design. Need I compare more than Comcast DVR's UI to TiVo's UI?Strong consumer brands drive website traffic. Comcast has a horrendous consumer brand. Comcast users generally do not like being Comcast users.Comcast's interest is in the broadest distribution of TV content, not exclusive distribution. Locking up certain content for Fancast.com alone would be a mistake. Consumers would see it as a violation of their rights, akin to the Net Neutrality debate.Comcast can survive (and perhaps prosper) through the death of cable-based TV, if it makes smart strategic decisions. That means focusing on where it provides the most value in the TV supply chain: Internet connectivity and content investment. Creating a content website that competes with its distributors is not a smart move.Comcast should pull the plug on Fancast.com or simply use it as a TV Everywhere authentication testing site.Guest author:Mike Berkley served as CEO of SplashCast Mediafrom 2006 to 2009, pioneering the concept of social TV in partnership with Hulu. Berkley is currently involved in the TV Everywhere initiative, consults on product strategy for online media companies, and maintains the TV News Streamblog covering all things related to online premium video.Discuss

  In the immediate wake of the announcement of Bing's indexing Twitter updates, Google has announced it will be doing the same.Taking the wind out of the sails of many a real-time search engine, Google's and Microsoft's announcements further put to rest a maelstrom of rumors swirling around the startup's possible acquisition and partnerships. tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_indexes_twitter.php';tweetmeme_source = 'rww';Marissa Mayer wrote todayon the official Google blog, "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months."SponsorThe Deal Per SeAlso of note is the fact that Google's agreement to index Twitter posts is, in itself, newsworthy. The deal has apparently been brokered recently enough that no examples or screenshots are yet available.No less newsworthy is the fact that both Google and Microsoft have announced Twitter search deals on the same day. With the rash of real-time search startups over the past two years and the heavy-hitters' focus on real-time search integration over the past several months, the terms of this particular game become increasingly clear. The search market money remains in advertising, and who controls search by serving the best, most relevant results, will also control search revenue.The Deal As DollarsIf readers will direct their attention to the heady days of the dotcom boom, they will recall that Google was able to effectively kill Yahoo! search - and capture and monetize that traffic - when Yahoo! began serving search results from Google. Shortly thereafter, Google grew to dominate the search landscape in its own right.When considering real-time search, one begins to see a similar pattern emerging. Twitter is but one of the many real-time properties that serve valuable backlinks with keyword-rich content. If Twitter or any of its ilk were to be acquired by a search giant, real-time search would be effectively weighted to one site or another; and with that weight of traffic would come a weight of ad dollars. It would be very unlike Google to let such an opportunity pass; however, indexing Twitter is a difficult, time-consuming task that has absorbed many teams in the sphere of startups in real-time search.The Deal As ProductThe sheer amount of data available is mind-boggling. Wowd has resorted to distributed computing(à la SETI@Home) to solve the problem. OneRiothas put a team of 25 engineers to work for two years to solve the problem of effectively serving relevant results from the real-time web. And Collectahas used IM-affiliated technologies to bring streaming data to the space, shaving off even the most minute delays between machine indexing and human discovery.In short, these back-to-back announcements could spell either a mass acquisition of real-time search engines or a mass extinction. The search giants have enough market- and mindshare to make any startup obsolete; regardless of how late they are to this game, they have the power to bring real-time search to the mainstream market.The Deal for Twitter &StartupsAlso, both Google and Microsoft must consider when serving Twitter results whether the startup can handle a firehose of search giant-level traffic. The notorious Outages of the Summer of 2008 called the company's scalability into question. But when one considers the fact that 1 out of 5 Internet users is on Twitter (or a similar service) and almost all Internet users are searching via Google or Microsoft, one wonders whether Twitter's back end can handle a fivefold onslaught of traffic.Will Twitter require a data center for handling Google-fed traffic? How will Twitter deal with serving results on topics to newer or less experienced Internet users? Were these questions part of the company's conversations with Google?To many in the real-time search-o-sphere, these announcements resound as both validation of long years of research and development and as apocalyptic overtones of longtime giants muscling their way onto the frontier. Who will survive, who is in acquisition talks, and who will be designated for obsolescence? More ReadWriteWeb coverage is coming soon; please stay tuned and leave your comments below.Discuss

  After tech heavy hitters like Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble and Fred Wilson expressed public outrage over its pay-to-play fees, the Keiretsu Forum has begun waiving fees for early-stage startup presentations. According to PeHUB's Deborah Gage, the network is asking its chapters to disregard presentation charges for companies with less than $500,000 in capital and for those trying to raise less than $500,000 from investors. SponsorIn early October ReadWriteWeb covered the uproar Jason Calacanis caused when he spoke out against pay-to-pitch VC presentations. Said Calacanis, "It's low-class, inappropriate and predatory for a rich person to ask an entrepreneur to PAY THEM for 15 minutes of their time."Since then the vocal entrepreneur/investor has been publicly outing organizations with pay-to-play presentation models. Recently he called on startup companies to boycott events like New York's Venture Summitand AlwaysOn's Venture Summit Silicon Valley. Both events charge startups as presentation sponsors before they can demo to attendees. To counter these events, Calacanis even promised to "launch competing, fee-free events directly opposite [these pay-to-play] events."Meanwhile, Keiretsu Forum user Steve Bell points to demo costs on Calacanis' TechCrunch 50 flooras an example of the same pay-to-pitch tactics that the entrepreneur is rallying against. Having looked at the argument, we're unsure whether these fees can be classified as presentation fees or merely sponsorships. Perhaps this is where the ethical lines become really blurry: Because most tech events offset the cost of production with sponsorships, at what point do we draw the line between sponsor presentations and pay-to-pitch demos?Discuss

  Microsoft has just announced at the Web 2.0 Summitthat its search engine Bing now includes Twitter search results. Facebook messages posted by people with public profiles will roll out next, at a date to be determined. Twitter can bring a new level of up-to-the-minute information to web search, but can Bing add value to Twitter search? We asked three User Experience experts for their opinions about what Bing would need to do in order to succeed in this integration from a UX perspective. They agreed that there was exciting potential here but that the implementation was rudimentary.SponsorThe new Twitter search is at bing.com/twitter as well as placing some recent messages from celebrities on search results pages when users search for celebrity names. On the /twitter page users will be able to view deduplicated search results listed by timeliness or importance, determined by friend/follow ratios of Twitter users, number of retweets, lengthyness of the text and presence of a link. Users are shown tag clouds of popular topics on Twitter and hot links being shared extensively. This isn't anything too big but Microsoft says it's only the beginning.Bing now has real-time access to the full fire hose of Twitter data, that's a really valuable flow of data. It's clear that Twitter can provide some real opportunity for Bing, but what can Bing do for Twitter? Would Twitter users be better off just using Twitter search?We asked three User Experience professionals for their opinions. They provided feedback as the announcement rolled out, through the AardvarkIM interface. (Which was awesome.)Ben Thompson, Massachusetts-based financial services UX designer."The ability to integrate facebook and twitter streams and data is the next evolutionary step for search. To me it isn't a game changer like Google was but evolutionary in that real time was always desired. It's the next step."Thompson is excited about potential use cases."The integration of the real time stream can bring pertinent information on live events. Say we are watching the next Presidential debate. Now people can search and get real streams from people and their thoughts about it instead of just listening to the pundits. The celebrity angle will allow people to get closer to the direct information from that celebrity instead of just news stories about them. Plus it will allow up-to-the-minute information.""I believe Bing can add value to Twitter search by making people more aware of the power of Twitter." - Ben Thompsan, UX designerBut couldn't people do that on Twitter by itself? What can Bing do for Twitter? "I believe Bing can add value to Twitter search by making people more aware of the power of Twitter. Many people think Twitter is just a silly place where people write about themselves in 140 characters - not understanding the true power of Twitter is in massive amounts of real time data. So Bing displaying twitter results will help bring that concept to the masses."Thomas Vander Wal, Principal at InfoCloud Solutions."I would give Bing/Twitter a 70% good, but not too different from other things. I am wondering how they can or will disambiguate the Paris Hilton type problem (hotel &celebrity). I saw the photos of Carly Fiorina from W2S yesterday and dropped 'carly' into bing/twitter, but it did not disambiguate the 4 various 'carly's being tweeted about.""This new integration does not sound like much of a value add to what Twitter already offers, just mashing it into something else." -Thomas Vander WalVander Wal is very critical of Bing's use of tag clouds in Twitter search."Tag clouds normally are a large problem for finding and navigating, they work best on distinct objects, e.g. '2010 Ford Mustang.' Top level tag clouds normally work best for the things biggest and boldest, but most people don't see the other elements. Twitter's own list view of hot topics is easier for people to grasp. Tag clouds are more cool and fun (for those few that grok them) than helpful - any usability testing normally drops them from consideration for use.""This new integration does not sound like much of a value add to what Twitter already offers, just mashing it into something else. The basic level Information Architecture on the Bing Twitter search page is far from clear. The way that retweeting gets gamed I am not sure how valuable that metric is, but if weighted low in an algorithm it could have value." "Playing with the site, it does not understand me in context. The 'most recent tweets about...' are pulling from the public stream and are not delivering quality results. It's not taking into account who I am, which means it is not pulling things related on following relationships." "I am one of those outliers who deals withheavy information flows. Having something that can not sort through the volume of micro information without adding some contextual relevance is going to be tough for general users.""If Bing learns interests to filter by context and interest then there is really something there."Nicole Califano, UX Designer at The Barbarian Groupin San Francisco."This is not a new idea, but the right execution has yet to be seen." -Nicole Califano"My first instinct is that there needs to be some really creative user preferences down the line, as this could get messy. This is all very exciting but I'm a little concerned with filtering these channels (so far I think Twitter &Facebook are unsuccessful at filtering). "No doubt, Google will be integrating Twitter, Facebook and other social outlets to their search soon too. This is not a new idea, but the right execution has yet to be seen."Can Bing step up its game with regards to Twitter search? The initial launch isn't very promising, especially when there are so many small startups doing much more interesting things with search on top of Twitter. At the very least the integration might bring real time into the consciousness of more consumers, though.Discuss

  Yesterday we wrote about Mary Meeker's annual overview of Internet trendsat the Web 2.0 Summit. In this post we do a deeper dive into the Web themes that Meeker explored. In particular we'll analyze mobile social networking, compare 2009 to previous years and look at the impact of Apple and Facebook on current trends. You can also skip to the conclusionfor the main points.Meeker's presentationnoted that financial markets have rebounded and that the technology sector is now "relatively impressive." Let's start by explaining how 2009 is different to previous years.Sponsor2001 ReduxTim O'Reilly noted yesterdayin his conference opening that the "[Web] revolution we're seeing today is as great as the one we saw five years ago." Mary Meeker had an interesting slide that touched on a similar point - although the dates don't quite match. O'Reilly compared 2009 to 2004. Meeker pointed to statistics showing that growth in the technology sector in 2009 has the same pattern as 2001.If we correlate O'Reilly's comments with Meeker's, it may not be until 2011 that we see a new era of the Web. In other words, what we're seeing in 2009 is the beginning of a recovery - but it will take a couple more years until the full impact is seen. That makes sense if we view mobile as the key driver of the next Web era, because mobile certainly is very young in its growth curve in the U.S. (it's more mature of course in Asia and Europe).Mobile Social NetworkingOne of the points on slide 2 is that platforms that combine social networking with mobilewill drive "unprecedented change in communications + commerce." That statement seems a little hyperbolic, but we have undeniably seen an uptick in usage this year of companies like Foursquare, Loopt and Brightkite. Later in the presentation, Meeker predicted that Facebook will be a major player in this market in the near future.We reported back in March that Foursquare was one of the highlightsof the SXSW Interactive event in Austin, Texas. This is the same event where Twitter first generated buzz back in 2007. While it's too early to call Foursquare the 'Twitter of mobile social networking,' it's worth keeping an eye on that app in particular - given Meeker's prediction.Later in slide 36, Meeker noted the importance of location-based services.Device ExplosionAnother key point in Meeker's presentation was that Internet connected devices will proliferate over the coming years.In slide 40, Meeker wrote:"Mobile devices will evolve as remote controls for ever expanding types of real-time cloud-based services, including emerging category of location-based services, creating opportunities + dislocations, empowering consumers in unprecedented + transformative ways."Apple Leading the ChargeIn slide 39, Meeker wrote that Apple is the leading hardware and software company currently in the mobile Internet market:"Near term, Apple is driving the platform change to mobile computing. Its mobile ecosystem (iPhone + iTouch + iTunes + accessories + services) market share / impact should surprise on upside for at least the next 1-2 years.Long term, emerging markets competition, open mobile web (paced by likes of Google Android) and carrier limitations pose challenges. RIM likely to maintain enterprise lead for 1-2 years owing to installed base."In the next slide, Meeker claimed that the iphone/itouch ecosystem exhibited the "fastest hardware user growth in consumer tech history."The Growth of Facebook, YouTube & TwitterWe all know that these three services have experienced large growth over the past few years. Slide 42 summarizes that.Also note the emergence of Demand Media, which we reviewed earlier this year. We met with Demand Media again yesterday, so a new analysis post is coming soon on this fascinating new media company.ConclusionOverall, we at ReadWriteWeb agree with Morgan Stanley that mobile is going to continue to ramp up considerably. However we think that other trends - such as Internet of Things and real-time Web - were overlooked by Meeker. You can continue to track those and other emerging Internet trends here on our blog.Also, while we agree that mobile social networking will be a big trend, we think it's likely that a brand new service will emerge as a major winner in that field. So Facebook may not be the major player, as Morgan Stanley implies in its report. Foursquare may be the big winner, or it could be something completely new. Twitter came out of left field a couple of years ago and it's now a dominant topic of conversation at the Web 2.0 Summit. What New Thing will we be talking about in 2 years time? Let us know in the comments!Lead photo: O'Reilly ConferencesDiscuss