Social Search! The Next Wave...

Google Search…WE HEARD IT!

Social Network… WE HEARD IT!

But  Social Search…yeah, that’s new isn’t it?

What’s that?? Here you go.Let’s find out...

At times, when we run a long-text-search(i.e. when the search criteria is pretty detailed)  on Google or any other search engines, we get a lot of information but those links provide information that is not completely context sensitive and is almost always not readily usable. 

We've also seen portals like Ask Jeeves (or Ask.com) where we see that they are more or less searches which get us back some links for further reading and not a customized-for-the-question-answer. The reason behind is that the search engines lack the human-touch (or I’d actually call it Hi-Touch)

Now, what if there’s a set of people that are part of a social network and you are its member already. Imagine that a person from that network knows or has the body of knowledge needed to respond to that query. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if you got the reply directly from that person?

The above fact, coupled with the feeling that ‘you want a person, not a web page, to answer your question’ has given birth to the concept of ‘Social Search’. Now, like an icing on the cake, How’d you like if you get a response very soon, in just minutes and is delivered straight to your email or surprisingly, via a ping on the instant messengers (like G-talk)

Now, that's exactly the innovative concept that Aardvark, San Francisco, California based company has started out offering. No wonder, pretty soon, Aardvark got acquired by Google! (and it'll be the first anniversary this Feb 2011)

In summary, Aardvark is social search: Ask any question and Aardvark will discover the perfect person in your network to answer in minutes. I've tried it and its wonderful. Try it!! The site address is www.vark.com

Come!

Let’s Go…Become an Aardvarker J Let’s see how the Hi-Touch + Hi-Tech together come to play and help out at once.

Curiosity Corner

Digressing a bit on a trajectory, out of curiosity, Did anyone wonder why they came up with such an un-common name? Here’s probably why! 

‘Aardvark’ from picture above is a Native African medium sized nocturnal burrowing mammal also commonly referred to as an ant-eater. It is very popular for its abilities in digging out ants and termites. It’s probably this characteristic that inspired the founders to use this “digging and borrowing attribute” and further extending that to get Answers by digging deep in a social network where people are willing to help. 

The word of mouth on the Dell Venue (Pro)

Dell has introduced its new Android smart-phone(s) with two variants, one with the QWERTY key pad (Dell Venue Pro) and one without (Dell Venue)

DVP is the numero uno smart-phone which runs a Windows Phone 7 OS. Dell is also planning to launch its DV which runs on Android 2.2 Froyo OS. DV Android version is expected to have Rs. 29,990 in India. For those reading this posting outside of India, (esp. continental US); The 8 GB Venue Pro is priced at $450 and the 16 GB Venue Pro is available for $500 without a contract. These phones have been out in the market for close to four months now in some markets.

Some of the points that should be kept in mind before actually buying this model on Win 7 OS are:

DVP and DV mainly differ in the QWERTY key pad that is physical due to a sliding option in the Pro while its touch on the android version. I think that’s a great idea as everyone is so used to RIM’s Blackberry phones can easily move on to DVP with ease not to mention that those were in the same ranges as well. I still think it’ll be hard to lure the iPhone lovers though there are no hardware design flaws.

The scratch proof four inch Gorilla Glass AMOLED convex-shaped display has a sure magnetizing effect on the buyer but to keep in mind that it’s that much area that’ll need the wipe after every call :)

The 5 megapixel camera seemed a bit low on that price point phone as there are already cheaper phones with the same camera specs in the market. The flash on this device is ineffective (LED-type) and one wouldn’t find it to be helpful in taking pictures in low light.

One of the biggest complaints with the Dell Venue phones is that the Exchange 2003 is not completely supported by Win Phone 7. Another one heard around users is that they need Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Voice and better microsoft exchange support for win 7. One common ask from users is of Microsoft's integration with OneNote and the other Office apps to sync more easily with Win 7 Os.

Some users have reported an occasional lock up while accessing some applications. Microsoft has already stated that the coming update will address stability issues. This is a new OS and so, some problems are to be expected (IMHO, practically having a flawless OS/Software is hard these days with the plethora of features and integration touch-points these days).

If one wants to install a custom ringtone onto this phone, it’s not possible (as yet). The Phone can't connect to a hidden Wi-Fi hotspot, unless the SSID is of the hotspot is made open for the public to see. There is not a decent multitasking solution for 3rd party apps. For all these listed above, the trouble is, with any Win 7 phone, one is forced to wait for Microsoft to update it to fix the missing features and bugs. Let’s hope that Dell and Microsoft together exercise their muscle well and deliver it well.

On the plusses, there's a nice ‘cut and paste’ feature that is lacking in most other smart phones. Though some might argue that iPhone and android phones feature a limited version of multitasking to conserve battery life, others find that multi-tasking is the game changer! However, full multitasking like on a desktop PC would kill the battery.

Hope these points help in deciding for or against the Dell Venue Pro mobile phone for the prospective shopper...

Dell’s journey to the Dell Venue Pro and beyond...

This article is purely my view-point and understanding of the business scenarios and various factors that brought the Dell Venue Pro out into the market.

Historically, Dell’s main strength has been its the 'Direct' business-model and supply chain execution speed, which, with time could be copied by competition and slowly by steadily, the gap between Dell and its competition really thinned and the days of God like profitability were short lived.

Dell is one company that always seemed to me that it never innovated much on the products front (in comparison to its peers) and the strategic moves that it made on its products; be it printers, mobile communication devices or even other accessories, it always wound those operations up after not reaching a successful fruition.

While this was how Dell was going through internally, on the outside, everyone was keenly witnessing another Big Hi-tech/Computer Giant, a Cupertino - California peer’s astronomical growth and even beating $10B/quarter or more consistently and their single point formula was innovation and aesthetics. In the competitive environment, another set of big peers merged and have surpassed Dell very much with time. This was the time that Dell seriously engrossed in thought and came up with a strategy to innovate again…

However, After Michael Dell came back at the helm of Dell, we’ve all seen that in recent times, Dell again has been making good progress in getting to the leader position for two consecutive quarters but then, lost to HP the last QTR of 2010 by 2.8%. Ouch! That was narrow. It was then, the fact that both Dell and HP-Compaq together amounted to lesser than 30% of the PC market share. There’s so much more to accomplish...

On the Geo-specific strategy, Dell has realized the importance of India (greater than a Billion USD in revenues) in the overall pie for revenues and growth. Moreover, anyone following Gartner’s reports can tell that ‘the growth rate in the Indian market was more than five times the average growth rate of the global PC market in the fourth quarter’. Dell’s growth rate in India was 55% (for Q3 – YoY), the highest recorded at Dell’s any GEO market. Impressive India right there!

From my readings, I have come to know of their deep focus on acquisitions as well as aiming for growth in the Mobile market and Cloud computing that will take Dell to the next level. There’s serious competition and only taking some bold steps will jump it into the next orbit. One such bold attempt is the DVP… our Dell Venue Pro.

Dell, I think, is trying to really do a ONE-UP on its competition here with the first mover advantage with a windows based smart phone!

I, for one, will keep a close watch on what Dell does on the newer models it plans to release (per the leaked Dell Products Road map recently)

For 2011:

• Another smart phone: Dell Wrigley (could be just the code name). Win 7 (1GHz proc, 4-inch WGVA screen, an 8 MP camera & 720p video) 
• Dell Gallo, based on Google's tablet-specific Android 2.3 OS (aka Honeycomb) 
• Dell Sterling, Honeycomb-based tablet 

For 2012:

• Dell Opus One & Dell Silver Oak (both of them, Android Tablets)
• Dell Rosemont & Dell Peju, Win 8 (windows based tablets) 

Here’s wishing Dell all the luck to once again, pace up to the yester-decade’s glory!!!