GOOGLEZON. And, other cy-fi wonders

Want to know what?s going to happen in 2015 in cyberspace? Spare 8 minutes for the streaming cy-fi flick, aka ?mockumentary?, writes Deepak Mankar.

I’m afraid Google has done it again. I mean, gone and upset various people on varied counts. Last week this column hindustantimes.com wrote about ‘GOOGLE’S HUMAN TESTERS. And, a secret lab to boot.’ as well as ‘SOME MORE NEFARIOUS GOINGS-ON. By Google, who else?’. All of it seemed to have stirred up the blogosphere natives no end until the jungle drums were tom-toming frantically for The Phantom to intervene, remember? Now I’m going to tell you about the early-June introduction of Google Sitemaps. This is a free service that lets publishers automatically submit web pages to Google so that it can improve search results, according to NetImperative. It is Google’s submission that the new tool will enable webmasters to provide information about all their existing web pages, prioritize the pages they want crawled first and tell Google when pages are updated so that it can index new content faster. Google denied that Sitemaps would replace its existing crawl technology, ‘Googlebot’, to seek web content and also said it does not guarantee a site’s inclusion or ranking. marketingvox.com. Have a look at google.com. (By the way, Google Engineering Director Shiva Shivakumar wrote on 02 June about the new beta service that it will "either fail miserably or succeed beyond our wildest dreams". Read ‘Webmaster-friendly’ at googleblog.) The initial complaints about the user’s PC running ‘out-of-memory’ when using Google Sitemaps seem to have run out of steam.

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STRATEGIC RETREAT? Google Web Accelerator (Beta).

The other bone of contention has been the free Google Web Accelerator, a Beta software package intended to speed up web browsing (not for dial-up connections, though). To do this, Google would act as a giant proxy, storing parts of the web on their machines for quicker access, also managing to download only the changes of a web page viewed before. Google uses its prefetching technology to download results – like pages linked in a search result – even before you click on them. webaccelerator.google.com. Have a look at blog.outer-court.com. The chief worry widely voiced here has been about privacy (prefetching) and security flaws. But looks it’s like bye-bye for GWA, at least for the time being. Says the Google message posted right now on the Web Accelerator webpage: “Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator. We have currently reached our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support.” Google says putting the GWA on hold had nothing to do with security worries, e.g., receiving "receive information such as a person's IP address, computer and connection information, and 'personally identifiable information,' such as an e-mail address." Who knows what the truth is? geek.com.

OUTSOURCING. Out with the good news.

The first good news is about Mumbai-based WNS Global Services. This Indian BPO (business process outsourcing) firm upped its revenue ($165m, compared to $103m in the previous year) by 60% and its headcount to over 7,500 in 2004-05. In June 2004, Nasscom had ranked the company as India's leading BPO provider. cbronline.com. The second piece of good news comes from Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies). The largest IT services contract signed by an Indian offshore provider until recently was the $100 million deal that Tata Consultancy Services had signed with GE Medical Systems in 2002. Now, there’s the $204 million slice of Fujitsu's $1.6 billion UK National Health Service contract in January 2004. “The two contracts represent the only nine-figure deals signed by the offshore providers, and shows that despite the stellar growth they have achieved, and their exceptionally high stock market valuations, the likes of Tata, Infosys and Wipro have still not joined the big time,” reports the CBR Staff Writer. He also quotes the opinion of Baru Rao, Capgemini India’s CEO: "The major Indian vendors are regular competitors in contracts in the tens of millions of dollars, but to get the major deals is not as easy as it sounds there are employee integration issues they would have to overcome in a major outsourcing deal, they need to finance deals up front, and as a customer you have to consider how employees would feel about such a move." cbronline.com. To read the last QuiteATake.com coverage of TCS (‘NO GROWTH. But profits, yes.’), please go here: hindustantimes.com.

GOOGLEZON. And, other cy-fi wonders.

Want to know what’s going to happen in 2015 in cyberspace? Spare 8 minutes for the streaming cy-fi flick, aka ‘mockumentary’. It’s about the news universe after Google and Amazon merge in the future. Called ‘Back To The Future: EPIC 2015’, a sequel to EPIC 2014, it’s the brainchild of Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson. robinsloan.com Do read the World: 2015: Googlezon & The Newsmasters EPIC summary. masternewmedia.org. A couple of quotable quotes: (1) “Newsmasters are an emerging group of news editors which utilize new tools and techniques to create unique content streams on specialized topics by tapping largely into the RSS content universe as well as in other openly reusable sources of news and information.” (2) “EPIC [means] … 'Evolving Personalized Information Construct'. … EPIC produces a custom contents package for each user, using his choices, his consumption habits, his interests, his demographics, his social network — to shape the product.”

WORD HUNTER! Who me?

I’m a word lover. Word hunting goes beyond my horizon, though. So I won’t be joining the Oxford English Dictionary-BBC Word Hunt launched early June. You’ll find the appeal and the 50-word hunt list at oed.com. It runs from ‘balti (1984)’ to ‘tikka masala (1975)’ by a strange coincidence. By the way, did you know the Oxford English dictionary calls itself “the greatest book in the English language”? P.S.: Just in case you want to access the list of the latest (circa June 9, 2005) additions to it, go to oed.com.

SEARCH BEYOND SEARCH. Listen to Gary.

ResearchShelf’s Gary Price, a librarian by profession and a search ‘wiz’, has this unusual advice to offer in ‘Finding Answers Beyond Web Search’: “To find what you are really looking for, all you need is a library card.” betanews.com. Read his article and let me know what you think.

AGE-OLD DESI MSS. New mission.

India has probably the largest collection of manuscripts in the world, spread all over the country and also abroad in various libraries, academic institutions, museums, temples and monasteries and in private collections. At namami.nic.in is the National Mission for Manuscripts website. The homepage asks (and answers) the question that came to mind right off: “Why a Mission for Manuscripts?” Why indeed? Read for yourself and find out. Also, read Manu Pubby’s enlightening ‘The oldest new library’. indianexpress.com.

That's all for now though there's plenty more out there. Join me again next week, same place.

Copyright (c) 2001- 2005 by Deepak Mankar. All rights reserved. Deepak Mankar, an advertising practitioner on the creative side since 1965, is also intensely passionate about the web and web content creation. Read his online articles athttp://www.asiaondemand.com/. Website:http://www.addgandhi.com/original/. You may e-mail him at dmankar@bom8.vsnl.net.in