This is the final installment of the interview, which started here. Today’s focus includes challenges with federated search and Todd’s predictions of the future of the industry.
Todd is the second luminary that I recognize in this blog. You can find future and past luminary interviews in the luminary category. I invite you to nominate people who deserve to hold the federated search luminary distinction.
Today is the third of four parts of this interview. Today’s discussion includes what has made WebFeat so successful, managing a huge connector base, and the selling of WebFeat to ProQuest.
Todd is the second luminary that I recognize in this blog. You can find future and past luminary interviews in the luminary category. I invite you to nominate people who deserve to hold the federated search luminary distinction.
This is the second installment of my interview with federated search luminary, Todd Miller. Part I is here. Today, Todd answers questions about the early days of WebFeat, about WebFeat and libraries, and about WebFeat’s contributions to federated search.
Todd is the second luminary that I recognize in this blog. You can find future and past luminary interviews in the luminary category. I invite you to nominate people who deserve to hold the federated search luminary distinction.
I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview Todd Miller, founder of WebFeat, for this federated search luminary series. I recently published a preview of the interview. In this first installment, Todd shares wisdom that he gained early in his career; these early experiences would prepare him to start and grow WebFeat.
Todd is the second luminary that I recognize in this blog. You can find future and past luminary interviews in the luminary category. I invite you to nominate people who deserve to hold the federated search luminary distinction.
Todd Miller founded WebFeat in 1998. Ten years later, in February of this year, Todd sold the company to ProQuest. During his tenure with WebFeat, Todd made major contributions to federated search that earn him the distinction of being a luminary in the industry, along with Kate Noerr, who I interviewed recently.
I emailed Todd a set of questions. I got back seven single-spaced pages worth of responses and it was all outstanding. So, I’m going to serialize the interview into a number of parts, publishing the first on Monday. In this article I want to list the interview questions and provide excerpts of a few of Todd’s responses; overall I find Todd’s writing to be intelligent, insightful, and at times quite witty.
In a recent article, Infotech reported that Oxford, Cambridge, and Stanford have each announced federated search systems.
The press releases provide some insight into what was important to each of them:
Paula Hane, Information Today, Inc.’s news bureau chief and editor of NewsBreaks, published a nice in-depth article about the acquisition of WebFeat by ProQuest. Aside from the ProQuest press release, Library Journal’s coverage of the story, and my own article, there hasn’t been tremendous coverage of the acquisition. Hane’s article adds some detail. Also, Carl Grant, President of CARE Affiliates, expresses his view of the acquisition in light of the OpenTranslators partnership that involves WebFeat, CARE, and Index Data.
Of particular interest, Hane reported the reactions of a number of people who were knowledgeable about the federated search industry, including Marshall Breeding, Frank Cervone, Cheryl LaGuardia, and myself. The four viewpoints (at the end of the article) of what the acquisition means for the industry are quite valuable.
ProQuest announced today that it has acquired WebFeat. Library Journal interviewed Serials Solutions general manager Jane Burke about the acquisition. Serials Solutions was acquired by ProQuest several years ago. Consolidation has occurred in the federated search industry.
Is there a story behind the story? I can only speculate, and I will — ProQuest bought WebFeat for its customer base. ProQuest already has federated search offerings through its business unit, Serials Solutions. Both WebFeat and Serials Solutions are known for their low-cost offerings and business models based on providing federated search as a service. WebFeat has sold federated search solutions to consortia (Serials Solutions hasn’t) and WebFeat has a large number of customers in that market. More customers means more service to sell. At one time Serials Solutions licensed their connectors from WebFeat. They no longer do. Plus, the press release stated that WebFeat founder and CEO Todd Miller would only be remaining with WebFeat briefly, as a consultant. So, this doesn’t strike me as a technology play even though Burke, in her interview with Library Journal, mentions a couple of WebFeat’s features that would complement Serials Solutions’ 360 Search.
Yesterday, CARE Affiliates issued a press release announcing a new product offering. A snippet of the announcement is this:
CARE Affiliates announced a new product, in conjunction with its strategic partners, Index Data and WebFeat, called OpenTranslators. OpenTranslators is intended to reshape the way libraries select and use federated search and metasearch technology. OpenTranslators will allow libraries to use the federated search interface of their choice to access over 10,000 databases using SRU/SRW/Z39.50.
I have lots of questions about the offering but here is what is clear. CARE is a company in the business of providing products and services to libraries and information centers based on open source software. Index Data develops, customizes and supports open source information retrieval software, including federated search software. WebFeat is a developer of proprietary federated search software. WebFeat has a large number of translators (connectors to SRU/SRW/Z39.50 databases). CARE, in collaboration with Index Data, has developed a gateway to provide access to these WebFeat translators.
The ALA Midwinter Meeting starts January 11. Aside from the presentations I wrote about earlier a number of federated search vendors are exhibiting at the conference, and some of these vendors are announcing new product launches, giving talks and demonstrating their products. Here are some links to vendor information about their involvement with the conference:
If you know of others let me know and I’ll add an update to this post.
