Google Enterprise Search

So I mentioned that I am involved in launching a new business. We are basically partnering with Google to deliver their platform in to Enterprise customers in Europe. For starters we are looking at Enterprise Search, helping companies to use the GSA to deliver Enterprise Search solutions. It seems to do 80%-90% of the stuff that FAST, Endeca, Autonomy etc. can do, but at a fraction of the price and in a lot less time.

Before I started looking at it in detail I thought that the appliance was not going to be capable of some of the more advanced stuff that the Enterprise Software products can do ... but I was wrong. We have a couple of roll-outs in the pipeline that we are going to measure quiet closely to see just how big an impact the solution has in terms of productivity and ROI.

We are also looking to do some cool stuff with GSA + Maps + Android. Down the line we are planning to do some stuff with Apps as well.

It is going to be interesting to see just how successful Google Enterprise will be, especially given the moves that Microsoft is making, plus new players like Zoho.

Android Phone

I get my new G1 on Monday :-)

API Deprecation

OK, so I have been trying to migrate my Android apps from one of the Beta releases to the first final release of the API. Instead of doing the obvious thing and deprecating the old API's the Google developers in their wisdom have simply made wholesale changes with no backward support.

So, now I have a bunch of apps that look OK, compile and deploy without errors or warnings but now throw a bunch of run-time exceptions. The documentation of the changes between versions is pretty poor so now I have to trawl through the API docs and code examples to figure out what I need to fix.

Oh joy!

On a personal note (Interesting Times)

You may notice I have been rather quiet of late; certainly I have had no time for blogging. The last six months have been very interesting on both a personal and global level.

The global economy is in melt-down (kinda'), I have lost my job, I have been the victim of financial fraud, and various members of my family are suffering their own mini crisis! And yet! I am the happiest I have been for a long time now!

I have been approached by a past employer to help launch a new IT business. I am free from the oppression of all the corporate crap that went with my old job. I am master of my own destiny. I used to work for myself in the past, but did it more as a lifestyle business than anything else. This new venture is much more serious. I am hoping that it will give me the time to start blogging again. You will probably notice a change in direction from previous posts (or maybe not).

I have a feeling that next year is going to be a very exciting time. Whilst the current global situation will undoubtedly impact most of us on a very personal level, I think that it will also present many new opportunities.

If you are interested the new business is Stoneburn. We are focusing on building a business around the Google platform, starting with Enterprise Search and expanding from there. The new G1 (Android Phone) has just been launched and I am hoping to get my hands on one soon. I have been developing Android since the end of last year and may post a few ideas here at some point. I am also playing with all the Geo stuff, Search of Live Data, GWT, GEARS, Apps etc. as well as looking at Zoho, Amazon and the new Microsoft Live stuff that they are launching imminently.

I recon this next year is going to be a real exciting time for techies. The last time I got this excited by technology was back just before the .dot .com thing started.