Re: Age of marketing

[Eric Larson <elarson novell com>]

On Thu, 2005-09-22 at 09:00 -0400, D Bera wrote:
> Boy, this is the age of marketing. As if learning from the ingenious
> marketing techniques of Apple and Microsoft, Kat (the KDE desktop
> err... file search tool) is now being hosted on
> http://kat.mandriva.com/ The front page looks professional and
> mentions the "Softpedia 5/5" and "Linux+ recommended"
> awards/distinctions/whatever. Also, are on the page, several
> promo-style comments on the usefulness of kat (none of them deviate
> from the truth, unlike some of the commercials of other software
> giants). This is of course, much less effort than the marketing of
> Apple spotlight, Google GDS.
> 
> Just a personal opinion, but beaglewiki.org looks a bit kiddy compared
> to the other efforts. Beagle is certainly equally (or better) utility
> than the others and deserves better promo/marketing :P.
> 
> Does anybody feel a similar need ? Is there anybody in Novell or
> outside working on highlighting the features, which I feel, include,
> - all of them search files no doubt, but apart from that,
> - application backends, IIRC;
> - network -wide index and remote search
> - system-wide index
> - webinterface for non-gnome users (not yet in Kat and not in spotlight)
> - search for not only files but people, appointments, TODOs, and
> possibly cats and dogs ;)
> - ... (fill in the blanks)
> 
> Ideally, really good work shouldnt need extensive marketing, but even
> good research results, need to be send to right conferences and
> written correctly to have people appreciate it.

Content being king, I think what is missing from the beagle marketing
message is possibilities. I have always looked at search from a database
perspective, such that databases revolutionized the way people thought
of data. The database allowed mass amounts of data to be consumed
effectively and the result are things like Google, Wikipedia, and
Peoplesoft. What I am saying is it's the application of search that is
really exciting. This message is not conveyed in the current site.

I think if folks spent some time looking at how they can use search
results to narrow down random information we can start seeing some
really interesting tools. For example, if beagle could be used to search
source code then it is possible to create an "algorithm" search tool
that could convert code blocks into logical functions that can reused.
Something like a pattern finder tool could be the result. Another idea
might be a search tool for specific projects. Beagle could be used to
track information for specific projects so that you could keep your
images in an image folder while still associating it with a project. Of
course, things like a beagle evolution plugin or gaim plugin would be
helpful as well to show how beagle can help any app that needs
searching. This might even be better utilized in something like
Banshee. 

My main point here is that we should consider promoting beagle as an
enabling technology more than just a tool to help you randomly find
things. Usability tests have shown that users associate searching within
a context such as in email or a document, so trying to make this
possible in as many apps as possible seems like a good way to promote
beagle. Just my two cents ;)

Eric