FT Search, part of Pearson’s Financial Times Group, recently released the public beta of an interesting new search engine aimed squarely at anyone — “even a CEO” (!) — interested in unearthing information on companies and the external factors affecting them.

Newssift.com brings data from diverse sources together with technology components from established players such as Endeca, Nstein, Lexalytics and ReelTwo to offer an interesting and potentially powerful navigational experience.

I spoke with Robin Johnson, CEO of FT Search, yesterday to hear more about newssift’s capabilities and their intentions for its future development.

Production of this podcast was supported by Talis, and show notes are available on their Nodalities blog.

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Unconnected to my last blog post, which also involved the Financial Times, the front page of today’s print paper devotes a significant chunk of space to news that

“Every household in the country will be guaranteed access to broadband internet, according to a draft report by Lord Carter on the future of the telecoms and media industries.”

The story is also available online, as is an analysis piece to which the top half of page 3 is devoted in print.

We already have a ‘universal service commitment’ that guarantees availability of postal and telephone services across the UK, and for years there has been high level consideration of the idea that Internet access should enjoy similar guarantees. It would appear that Lord Carter (the UK Government‘s communications minister) may finally be about to make good on ideas that have bubbled up (and sunk back down again) throughout the lifetime of this Labour Government.

The proposal, contained in a draft of his Digital Britain report, is that any UK household will be entitled to receive download speeds of 2 megabits per second by 2012.

The paper quotes Ofcom figures suggesting that 40% of UK homes lacked broadband access in 2008, but doesn’t go on to quantify the proportion of those that were unable to connect as opposed to merely unwilling.

Lord Carter is quoted as saying that

“[broadband] is an enabling and transformatory service and therefore we have to look at how we universalise it.”

On the surface, at least, notions of universal access are obviously to be welcomed. The devil though, as ever, lies in the detail.

How expensive will this basic entitlement be for those taking it up? What about the cost of the computing equipment? If there is a skills gap, how will that be addressed?

Is focussed investment to refresh and extend the existing provision of broadband-connected computers in every UK library (a service that remains free in most, and should never have been charged for in the few local authorities that took the insane step of introducing charges) actually a more cost-effective way to achieve very similar social ends?

What, too, about that speed guarantee? 2Mb? TWO megabits? By 2012? Firstly, do they mean 2Mb, or do they mean the dreaded ‘up to’ 2Mb? I, for example, pay for an 8Mb connection, usually achieve about 5.5Mb and have never seen more than 6Mb. Secondly, isn’t 2Mb a little bit pathetic as a target to aim for in 2012? Some parts of the UK already see many times that on the same technologies and far more if they’re on fibre. The intention is correct; the target is conservative, considering that it comes from a supposedly visionary document.

Ever-more consumers getting online with ever-faster connections bodes well, of course, for those seeking to build and sustain services that run in the Cloud. If people can reach them and use them at speeds that enable a compelling experience, then everyone stands to benefit.

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Peter Whitehead’s ‘Editors’ Note‘ went online this afternoon, ahead of its appearance in print tomorrow.

No great surprises there although Jim Hietala’s piece, Don’t cloud your vision, surely deserves reading and responding to.

Tarry Singh draws my attention to National Cloud Computing Day, which comes to the UK on Friday 12 December.

The creation of UK-based KashFlow, National Cloud Computing Day

“is being organised… to encourage UK small businesses to evaluate online applications and speed up the migration from traditional word processing, spreadsheet, accounting, email and contact management systems installed on computers to their web-based counterparts.”

KashFlow managing director Duane Jackson is quoted as saying,

“Throughout the world businesses are discovering web-based software and it’s important that UK small businesses don’t get left behind.  They are already enjoying the benefits of a wide range of online services which are virtually indistinguishable – and often superior – from there [sic] installed counterparts.

The Cloud Computing Day challenge is simple – for small businesses to exclusively use online software in their day to day business on December 12th. This is a fun challenge with a serious message.  And we hope National Cloud Computing Day will help to raise awareness of a more efficient, economic and flexible way of working.”

This is in large part, of course, an attempt by KashFlow to gain free publicity for themselves and their award winning online accounting software. As they’re not attempting to disingenuously disguise their involvement, I have no problem with that, as it may well attract some attention to the wider issues around moving applications and data to the Cloud. The Financial Times, for one, has a tradition of seeing how technology might change business on the ground, and the paper is clearly looking closely at the Cloud.

I do wonder, though, if the emphasis on ‘online applications’ is misguided? Looking at my own behaviour, the biggest shift has actually been to move my data to the Cloud rather than the UI through which I choose to interact with it most of the time.

A quick skim of the applications currently running on my machine shows that every single one of them is tightly enmeshed with the Cloud, and every single one of them has (more or less) a Web-based interface that I am consciously choosing not to use whilst sat at my desk watching snow fall across East Yorkshire.

NetNewsWire, Twhirl, Mail, ecto, iCal, Adium, Skype, OmniFocus. And Firefox of course, but that’s different. All are running locally on this Mac, but all are working with data that I can access at will from my iPhone, and all (except OmniFocus?) are also available to me by various means on any net-connected computer with a half-decent browser.

There are plenty of sound business reasons to move toward Cloud-based software, SaaS and the rest. For the end user, though, the biggest challenge must surely be demonstrating the value, security and flexibility of moving data to the Cloud. Leave the decision about whether they actually read their Gmail via google.com or download it into Mail to the individual; they have reasons for their decision, and those reasons work for them.

Right, back to watching the snow. I look forward to seeing whether Duane’s initiative gets any traction next Friday.

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“Trying to get my head round what The Cloud actually IS (other than something that soaks you every time you go outside). Thoughts welcome”

I was amongst those to respond, as I had just posted my first entry on this shiny new blog and felt it was relevant to Peter’s question.

Peter takes a different tack this morning, devoting his editorial to asking the same question, and noting that he will

“discuss our joint findings in the next edition [of Digital Business]“

As well as being (obviously) very interested in the answer, I also hope that Peter is able to take a moment to share his thoughts on the relative merits of both approaches to information gathering. Which gave him the most data? Which was quickest? Which was ‘best’?

The next issue of Digital Business will land on desks on 3 December. I look forward to enlightenment.