Search is hot lately, with two new search engines being announced in recent weeks. As the world’s only easily-searchable database platform, we’re happy to see attention being paid to finding relevant data easily.

The first new search engine to come out is Wolfram Alpha, founded by physicist/inventor/crank Stephen Wolfram. I would describe Wolfram Alpha as a cross between Google and Wikipedia for technical topics: math, physics, chemistry, and so on. It’s neat that I can type in sin(x) and see a graph, or type in benzene and see everything from its molecular structure to a phase diagram. Then again, I’m a nerd. Outside of scientific fields, it does poorly. If I type in Brazil I see only a smattering of factoids about the country.  Compare this to Google’s entry for Brazil, which gives me images, maps, recent news, and so on; or Wikipedia’s entry, which is simply awesome, and shows Wikipedia at its best.

The second recent search engine to be unveiled is Microsoft’s Bing. It copies recent Google innovations like chunking out search results into different areas (news, maps, facts, weather) and providing suggestions for refined or related searches. It also has some very useful new features, like a mouse-over preview of the content of each search result that a user can skim before deciding whether to follow the link. 

All of this innovation shows that search is as important as ever. We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we built the world’s only searchable database. Type in what you’re looking for, like you would in an Internet search engine: phrases, people, dates, numbers, and so on. TrackVia translates your request into a search that’s appropriate to your data model, and presents a highlighted list of matching records from your database.

You can then edit the data right in the results page. You can also search notes that colleagues have added to database records, and search the built-in change history that TrackVia keeps for every record. And you can use advanced tricks like phrase searches, exact matches, negative matches, field binding, and even searching for blank values. All of this with a single search box, and a button labeled “Go.” No queries or wizards required. Did I mention it’s really, really fast – even with a hundred thousand records in your database?

It’s sort of like TrackVia is the Google/Bing/WolframAlpha of your own data.

Journalists wrote about cloud computing more than 6,000 times in May. Why?

After all, the delivery of IT services across the Internet is more than a decade old. Hotmail is a cloud-based email service, PayPal a cloud-based payment service, and Salesforce.com a cloud-based CRM – and all of those companies were started in the ‘90s. So what’s new that has made cloud computing so popular in the last two years?

I think the answer is that three prerequisites, or enablers, of cloud computing have been progressing steadily over the past decade, and their combination is only now at an inflection point.

The first enabler was the ubiquity of high-speed Internet access. The percentages of offices with broadband, of airports and hotels with WiFi, and of smart phones with data capability have all grown steadily since the dot-com crash. The second enabler was the maturity of browser technology. Only in the last three years have the major browsers settled on standard implementations of the technologies required for rich, interactive user interfaces – most importantly the Document Object Model (DOM), but also xhtml, CSS, and JavaScript. The third enabler was the gradually increasing comfort end-users have with storing private or critical information on the web. Call this the Gmail effect: over the last decade, professionals became accustomed to using the web for email, then retailing, then personal banking, and finally conducting business. 

If one supposes that improvement in those prerequisites has been more or less linear over the past 10 years, then their product – cloud readiness by businesses – would have increased not in a straight line, nor even like a parabola, but along a cubic curve. In other words, the trends combined to produce an inflection point in cloud readiness only recently.

At that inflection point, major vendors like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and (ahem) TrackVia entered the space, in turn driving those 6,000 press mentions. Okay – more of that coverage focused on those first three vendors than the last one. But check out our online database for business anyway!

Matt Giraud was saved by the judges last week, so two contestants go home tonight. Oh, the humanity. I continue to serve my fellow man by using a powerful business database to summarize American Idol performances. What can I say. I’m a giver. (Non-JavaScript readers – or anyone who doesn’t see the table below – click here.) 

In observance of Earth Day tomorrow, I thought I’d continue my “green” post series highlighting five reasons an online database is a green alternative.

1. No need to print and store documents in filing cabinets. An online database gives you the ability to upload documents so you don’t need to waste paper printing.  Attached data files will be archived and backed up on a regular basis.

2. No wasteful packaging. With an online database, there is no software to download . You always receive the latest updates as they are released.

3. No more snail mail newsletters.  An online database with a built-in email campaign tool allows you to send newsletters electronically to your database contacts.

4. No need to increase the carbon footprint by flying in consultants to create custom database solutions. Online databases are easily customizable and your free “consultant” is only an email or phone call away.

5. Minimize your contribution to air pollution. User permissions and anytime/anywhere access make it possible for workers to telecommute and share information virtually with an online database.

This week ask yourself, “How green is your data?”

Additional Green Posts:
Green IT Packaging and Design
Reducing the Racing Carbon Footprint
The Green Inauguration
Should the USDA Certify Green Electronics

As many as 100,000 patients of Peninsula Orthopaedic Associates were warned tapes containing their personal information were stolen on March 25, 2009. The tapes were stolen en-route to an offsite storage facility.

The good news is that Peninsula Orthopaedic was backing up its data. The bad news is the backup tapes were stolen while being transported to an offsite facility. If Peninsula Orthopaedic had used an online database like TrackVia, patient data would not have needed to be physically transported to an offsite storage facility.

With TrackVia, no data is stored on your computer. TrackVia uses RAID mirroring to store data on physically distinct and redundant storage devices. In addition, all data is stored in duplicate on physically separate servers in real time. This continuously running backup process eliminates the need for customers to back their data up on tapes and transport them to an offsite facility.

Peninsula Orthopedic and its patients alike could have rested easier knowing their data was continually backed up at TrackVia’s infrastructure partner, ViaWest, which provides a solid hosting infrastructure built with redundancy, security and performance in mind.

Twitter is ideal for haiku.

Think about it. They both encourage brevity – twitter in 140 characters, haiku in 17 syllables. They both eschew capital letters and punctuation. Most importantly, they both describe the present. Twitter asks us, “What are you doing?” Haiku asks us, “What do you see?” 

In doing so, haiku provides an opportunity to transcend the banal status updates that permeate the twittersphere with something sublime. Good haiku describes the visual, but conveys the intangible, hopefully with wit, elegance, or surprise. It gives the poster a reason to contemplate and synthesize before microblogging. It offers the follower ten seconds of Zen in a tech-saturated day.

For example, on Wednesday I could have tweeted, happy tax day! I’m in Texas for a business meeting and we saw a “tea party” downtown. However, I think it was more enlightening for all involved when I tweeted in haiku:

at the Alamo
sweaty tax protestors with signs
wait for Ted Nugent

So, without further ado, I hereby announce the Twitter Haiku Project. I will tweet only in haiku. A few previous efforts are below. Follow me @mattmcadams!

As a CPA in recovery, I thought it only appropriate for me to dig deeper into taxes this April 15th. I uploaded (via an Excel Import) tax rates across the globe into an online database to see how countries across the globe tax individuals and corporations.

Here is how the taxes stack up for the sixty countries I examined:
• 5 countries have individual tax rates in excess of 50% with Denmark having individual tax rates as high as 59%
• Monaco has no individual taxes for its citizens
• 6 countries have corporate tax rates of 35%
• Montenegro has lowest corporate tax rate of 9%

For a detailed listing of corporate tax rates by country click here. To see a detailed listing of individual tax rates by country click here.

Related Posts:
A CPA’s 12 Step Program to Inventory Database Management
Sin Tax Economic Stimulus

A recent TechCrunch post stating Ashton Kutcher has challenged CNN (Ted Turner) to a race to reach one million Twitter followers got me thinking of Twitter in terms of independent and blockbuster movies. It raises the question, “Do you approach Twitter as an actor in a blockbuster movie or an independent movie?”

The Kutcher challenge more than likely resonates with the blockbusters like Hannah Montana that want to have a huge opening weekend and get as many followers as possible. Ashton will get bragging rights for having a million followers; however how many followers does he really have a connection? How many are following just for the novelty and what happens when the novelty wears off? Remember, the Backstreet boys once had a huge following.

On the flip side, are those who approach Twitter as independents like Slumdog Millionaires. They may not generate a million followers , however they are able to connect in a genuine way with their followers. Furthermore, the independents will generate buzz, momentum and more followers over time.

As Seth Godin posted recently, some marketers are rock stars and all it takes is a tiny audience. I think the same holds true for Twitter. It does not take a million followers to be a blockbuster. Do you favor the independent or blockbuster approach to Twitter?

The past two weeks TrackVia has been promoting the new MediaOnTwitter database in partnership with @melissahourigan, @PRSarahEvans, @skydiver and @briansolis. Later today, we will announce the winner of the Kindle 2.

Today’s post describes in four steps how TrackVia’s online database is powering MediaOnTwitter.

1. To begin with, a custom database was created with fields for twitter ID, Media Outlet, beat, etc. A calculated URL field was also created to make a hyperlink so individuals viewing the list only have to click on the follow me field to follow desired media contacts.

2. Next, a website form was easily created within TrackVia to collect submissions from the media based on the custom database created. Required fields and a custom confirmation page were created to ensure all information was collected and submitters were notified that their submissions had been received.

3. Web form submissions automatically populate in the database making it easy for the editorial team to review and approve submissions for posting. The ability to edit multiple database records at once within TrackVia makes it easy to make edits to multiple records at a time.

4. Through the use of TrackVia’s powerful filtering capabilities, views (a comprehensive list and reports by country) have been created that display the Media contacts and their twitter IDs on a published website report. These reports are dynamically updated when new submissions are approved.

TrackVia is donating the use of its online database to continue powering MediaOnTwitter at the conclusion of this contest. Between now and April 20th, you can view the submissions at the following MediaOnTwitter page. After April 20, 2009, MediaOnTwitter’s new submissions can be submitted and the media contacts lists can be viewed at prsarahevans and mediaontwitter.com.

Contact me if you’d like to hear more about how TrackVia can help power your data tracking needs.

1. You can easily assign who has access to what data with user permissions in a database.

2. You can search a database like the Internet.

3. There are more ways to collect data with a database: website forms, email collection, excel import.

4. There is no software to download with an online database. Access data anywhere, anytime without the need to email files or worry whether or not you have the latest version.

5. You have the ability to store multiple data types in a database: music files, images, documents, etc.

6. With a database, you have the ability to publish dynamic real-time reports to the web.

7. Multiple team members can access and edit data in a database at the same time. Automatic change tracking lets you know who changed what/when. No longer worry about version control issues experienced with spreadsheets.

8. An online database is continually backed up minimizing the fear of losing changes made to your spreadsheet.

9. When you change a field type in a database, you receive a warning of the impact the change will have before the conversion occurs.

10. Databases allow you to set up email alerts or distribution schedules so you can stay informed of changes/updates to records in your database.

BONUS: If you are using a spreadsheet to track data, you can easily convert your spreadsheet into an online database within minutes via an excel import. You can even update an existing database with an excel import by mapping spreadsheet columns to database fields.