Quote to Note: Google and Humans
October 14, 2010
Quote to note. There are lots of references to the Google statement “get up to the creepy line.” A contender but not a keeper in my opinion. Point your browser thing to “Eric Schmidt: Google’s Policy Is To “Get Right Up To The Creepy Line And Not Cross It“. Here’s the quote that I wanted to capture.
Just yesterday, we [Business Insider] were speaking to a Googler about the limits of machine translation. “Humans understand things that we don’t,” he explained.
Yep, Google and then humans.
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2010
Freebie from a goose, neither Google nor human
Google Instant Stop Words
October 14, 2010
Stick a word in a stop word or black list and the user won’t know the difference. A reader sent me a link to an alleged Google Instant black list. Published on the 2600 Web site, you can peruse what won’t generate an automatic list of results. The list appears in the story “Google Black List: Words that Google Instant Doesn’t Like”. At lunch today, one of the goslings thought a Google black list Scrabble game would be fun. Another wanted to buy some as AdWords. I remained unflappable because filters, stop words, and black lists are often present, working silently and unobtrusively. Now what about objective search results? Didn’t think so.
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2010
Freebie
Configure a Personalized Search System Using APIs
October 14, 2010
When picking a search system users prefer simple systems that deliver quick yet informative results. Lucid Imagination has released LucidWorks Enterprise, an API based search platform. ReadWrite Enterprise’s article “Lucid Imagination: Building Your Own Search with a Set of APIs” introduces this new program to the world. The LucidWork Enterprise program is configured using the open source Apache/Solr/Lucene platform. LucidWorks Enterprise gives customers the ability to integrate APIs into the existing Solr/Lucene platform. “Customers can build their applications based upon a common admin console where data can be added and search features tuned depending on the needs of their users. System tasks such as the setup or modification of the application can be configured directly through the API. Intelligent scoring features as new information alerts, and system feedback are a few convenient benefits users can enjoy. Quality search technologies integrated into applications is vital, especially with the large amounts of data currently available. The flexibility and user friendly open source API search setups help users get the job done right.
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2010
Freebie
IBM, Oracle, and Google
October 14, 2010
Update: October 14, 2010, 9 30 pm Eastern. We just got off a phone call that offered some interesting spin on the Oracle- IBM pact. This caller suggests that IBM is working both sides of the street. The IBM play looks like a stage kiss from Oracle’s point of view and a real kiss to Google. Google can now claim that IBM is the focal point of contentious Java. Interesting.
“Oracle-IBM Pact Cuts Android Off at the Knees” turns a Fortune 50 tactic into a dream. Sure Oracle and IBM are looking like love birds with little interest in making Google into more than an annoying little brother on big brother’s hot date. Here’s the passage that struck me as edging towards wishful thinking, not the cold hard reality of open source goodness:
That would be a disaster for Android. Apache developer Stephen Colebourne, who’s been following the minutiae on his personal blog, believes IBM cut this deal because Oracle agreed to unblock a logjam in the Java Community Process that controls the platform. As a result, new versions of Java with long-awaited features should arrive in 2011 and 2012. But with no major financial backing for the development of its Java libraries, Android could slip behind and lose the love of its Java-savvy developer base.
One cannot discount the fact that two elephants seem to be engaging in some trunk stroking. But, in my opinion, the “cuts off at the knees” should be “could have an impact on Google.”
I interpret this story and its wishful thinking as a poke at Google. If a company cannot stop Google in the open market, why not resort to some old fashioned for the 50 tag team action.
The world of open source is a quite interesting place. The big companies wiggling into a crowd may have some unexpected consequences. Will Google choose to go through life with no legs under Android? Stakes are rising as the Google disruption triggers some interesting mainstream media comments and some fascinating team ups.
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2010
Endeca Pegs Business Intelligence
October 14, 2010
Endeca, once closely associated with eCommerce and enterprise search is working to unleash their business intelligence tools. Business intelligence software is gaining ground in the business world because of its proven advanced data handling but it can be difficult to sometimes find the most effective and efficient way to use the tools. In the Internetnews.com article “Endeca Aims to Simplify Access to BI Value” the company describes Endeca Latitude which combines business intelligence and search tools in one convenient package. Endeca “says its latest release makes typically complex business intelligence (BI) applications more accessible.” The new latitude program allows business IT departments to use business intelligence software to handle a variety of data needs. As other companies unlock the wealth of business intelligence tools and experience success, Endeca must shift its main focus from Enterprise Search and also adopt new technologies to remain competitive. Endeca Latitude provides users with better and quicker access to data and seems to be the wave of the future.
April Holmes, October 14, 2010
Freebie
Microsoft SharePoint Videos
October 13, 2010
A reader sent me a link and it pointed to a framed page on StumbleUpon.com. For the life of me, I can’t figure out who wrote what, when, and why. Here’s the StumbleUpon link.
When I shaved the url, I got a 404, so you are on your own. What interested my reader a lot and me not so much were two new videos in an article called “Microsoft’s Internet business Vision: SharePoint for Internet Sites & Fast Search.”
The two videos which I watched as I was writing this post are:
- Microsoft’s Internet Business Platform Vision Part 1. This is a seven minute video featuring a person in the Technology Solutions DPMG unit. I don’t know what the acronym means. The video is a voice over PowerPoint. The first video explained market trends.
- Microsoft’s Internet Business Platform Vision Part 2. The second video includes a nifty graphic about Redmond’s business vision. The diagram shows an “integrated platform”. Yes, another integrated platform which one hopes connects to the other platforms in an enterprise and in cloud space.
What’s this have to do with search? Well, one has to be able to find things in this integrated space. The Fast search detail was, in my opinion, thin. But there is a nifty diagram showing how Fast Search Server can deliver reach, retention, and revenue.
If you are into Microsoft, you will enjoy the voice over PowerPoint presentations. I anticipate that certified partners selling a snap in replacement for Fast Search Server may find the videos helpful with regard to their product marketing and positioning.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2010
Oracle Database 11g Search Features
October 13, 2010
I must admit that I don’t follow Oracle’s search and retrieval initiatives with the assiduity of the past. My goodness there is so much activity in the NoSQL world that I find that the new is driving out the old. A reader sent me a link to a useful write up by Richard Foote. “Oracle OpenWorld Day 5 Highlights.” The article includes a useful summary of search features and I wanted to capture his thoughts and urge you to read his original post. On the other hand, you could navigate to www.oracle.com, use the Web site search function, and locate the information yourself. (It did take me some time to find what I sought, but your mileage may vary.)
I learnt to my surprise that there are a quite a number of new features in relation to Oracle Text in the recent 11.2.0.2 release. New features include Entity Extraction whereby Oracle will automatically find entities in text such as people, cities, phone numbers, etc. a new Name Search facility in which people names with different spelling can more easily be found (such as Stephen and Steven) and a new Resultset Interface capability in which details and data can be nicely summarized. Also mentioned are enhancements in the manner by which frequent and not so frequent accesses to text tokens can be stored and processed. Also had a really interesting look at what new things are being planned, such as automatic partitioning, automatic optimizations of indexes via the use of a staging index, section specific index options, two index levels with better management of common terms in memory, substring index options to name but a few. Looks like there are going to be considerable functional improvements to text indexes on their way soon.
Oracle is a very large outfit, and I must invest some time in figuring out what happened to TripleHop, SES11g, Oracle Text, and the search functions that once were resident within such Oracle acquisitions as PeopleSoft. Soon. Hopefully soon. More rumors about a deal between Oracle and a search vendor. No comments on that, however.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2010
Freebie
PolySpot Lands ERAMET Contract
October 13, 2010
PolySpot, an enterprise content processing vendor based in Paris, landed a contact for the French mining and metals group ERAMET. The outfit is a large producer of nickel and ferronickel alloy, essential for stainless steel. According to ERAMET Fédère Sa Connaissance Grâce à PolySpot!:
The system will be used to make technical and scientific literature search more widely available to ERAMET staff. The ability to search multiple databases adds flexibility to the product. The system will also provide access to information from encyclopedias, journals, articles, file systems and document management applications. Features of the system include support for simple and advanced searches, faceted navigation, dynamic mining of authors, tagging keywords, etc.. The user can either conduct research on a specific source, or on all-sources say. Beyond the search functions and navigation, the thesaurus function establishes a hierarchy and semantic equivalence keywords to adapt to different cultural contexts and identify relevant concepts.
Congratulations to PolySpot.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2010
Freebie
Clearwell Goes All in One
October 13, 2010
“Clearwell Unveils All-in-One eDiscovery Platform” alerted me that another vendor has shifted from a solution to a platform. Clearwell flashed on my radar with its Rocket Docket system. The company won some kudos because a law firm or corporate legal office could ring Clearwell on the phone, and the company would deliver a ready-to-run box. The system could be plugged in and pointed at the content to be processed. The company has added nifty features that lawyers find quite useful. One lawyer told me a couple of years ago, “I can save my discovery trail and rerun it or show it to a colleague.”
According to the write up in Computer Business Review:
The platform can pull data from over 50 sources, including cloud-based applications, and offers a single dashboard for report generation. Other features of the new platform include an interactive data map, which enables users to navigate through data sources with what Clearwell calls an iTunes-like filter; collection templates, which save commonly-used collection settings, including specific directories, filters and preservation stores; and collection analytics, which provide a portfolio of analytical charts and tables that display the types of data collected.
For more information about this platform, navigate to www.clearwellsystems.com.
My views, before I forget them, include:
- How many platforms does an organization need? In some situations, cloud solutions make more sense. My recollection is that Brainware offered a spin on hosted a few years ago. One could call Brainware and the firm would pick up hard copy and digital data obtained via discovery, process it, and then provide secure access to an authorized user.
- Has the law firm market shifted? My sources tell me that buyers of these eDiscovery systems are corporate legal departments. The hook for these sales is that a CEO wants to know right away if there is an “issue” in the discovered materials.
- Has the number of vendors chasing the legal market forced down prices for basic services? The “platform” sounds like a higher value sale, particularly when connectors are provided to make it easy to ingest popular file types. The platform play, if successful, could draw the attention of a larger, more established platform provider. What happens when platforms collide? Unlikely because lawyers are not diffused widely in most organizations. Maybe the play will lead to a buy out.
Just some questions to which I don’t have answers.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2010
Freebie
Ease of Use: A Barrier to Business Intelligence Adoption
October 13, 2010
This story is a preview of a new ArnoldIT.com blog now in a limited test.
Training wheels are a good thing when learning to ride a bicycle. Once the training wheels are off, the rider is on his or her own. Most people survive bicycle riding without much more than a few bumps and scrapes. A small percentage suffer serious injuries.
For years, business intelligence came equipped with training wheels and a person with a degree in statistics with programming expertise. For a manager to hop on a business intelligence system, one of these experts plus training wheels were required. Not surprisingly, in this era of rapid fire decision making and flows of big data, who has time for the stats wonk and the speed inhibiting training wheels.
The argument in many organizations boils down to a demand from users to get direct access to business intelligence systems. Just as every Web surfer perceives himself / herself as an expert in online research, that confidence now reaches to most professionals.
“Ease of Use Is a Big Driver of SaaS Business Intelligence” reinforces this shift in the business intelligence market. According to the article on ITBusinessEdge.com:
When business users are actively involved in purchasing BI, ease of use is one of their primary criteria. And as White [a TDWI researcher] writes, “SaaS BI tools are generally intuitive, easy to use, and easy to understand.” Aberdeen found organizations using SaaS BI have 50 percent more self-service BI users than companies that do not use SaaS. That’s significant, since some folks think that getting more people using BI is the key to ROI. It’s also no surprise, then, that Dresner Advisory Services found earlier this year that vendors selling SaaS BI products are gaining ground on companies offering traditional, on-premise BI software. In addition to less-intimidating user interfaces, another reason SaaS BI is easier to use is because deployments typically are based on smaller, simpler data models. As White notes, SMBs using SaaS have smaller and less complex data sets than their larger counterparts. And at big companies, individual departments often use SaaS BI to supplement on-premise deployments by filling niches that traditional software doesn’t adequately address. “This smaller scale can make data inherently easier to navigate and easier to slice and dice,” White writes.
My opinion is that the “user experience” or UX will become more important that the user’s understanding of the underlying data’s strengths and weaknesses. Point and click works well in many situations. I am not convinced that buying a mission critical business intelligence system whether implemented via the cloud or on premises because of the snappy graphics and interface is appropriate.
Game link interfaces that obfuscate the underlying data may lead to very poorly informed decisions. A business intelligence system that isolates the user from the moving parts that put the information in a context may create more problems than its solves. Eye candy may not have the caloric value needed. I prefer a system that combines both rigor and ease of use. More importantly, I want the vendor to be standing by in case my ride begins to wobble. I saw a demonstration of a system from Digital Reasoning that struck me as having a good balance of features and functions without sacrificing ease of use.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2010
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
