US Government Adds Another Search Engine
February 6, 2011
When our favorite US government search engine is not enough, Federal agencies do their own thing. The FBI has its own advanced search engine. Network World highlights how in “FBI Set to Turn Up Advanced Security Search Engine.” N-DEx is a search engine provided to law enforcement across a number of entities. The FBI developed the system in 2008. When it rolls out in the near future, authorized entities will be able to share, search, link, and analyze information.
“With the system, law enforcement officers will be able to search databases for information on everything from tattoos to cars, allowing them to link cases that previously seemed isolated. They will be able to see crime trends and hotspots, access threat level assessments of individuals or locations, and use mapping technology. N-DEx will help law enforcement connect dots and connect law enforcement agencies from coast to coast, the FBI stated.”
N-DEx is powered by Raytheon, which will also help make the search engine go national. Our hunch is that another vendor’s technology pulses under the hood, but we don’t want to speculate on who is providing what to Raytheon. Note: The ArnoldIT.com team worked on the original USA.gov system and the non-public Threat Open Source Intelligence Gateway or TOSIG.com.
Whitney Grace, February 6, 2011
Freebie
Intersection with Social Collisions
February 6, 2011
We urge you to read the article “The New Intersection of Search and Social Media” and its ten tips.It took an inordinate chunk of time to overcome my initial impression, which was the gratuitously exploitative nature of this form of advertising, best showcased in suggestion number nine:
9. Social Media Can Be a Great Way to Build Links. Social media profiles/pages give us a great opportunity for link bait. People love to link to things about themselves. Post items such as the top ten experts in your field for reciprocal links.
Whatever your opinion of the social networking trend, it is undeniably a juggernaut of technology with rapidly evolving applications. If it can help topple entire regimes, of course it was inevitable that the increase of search power laced throughout social media would tempt marketers to begin pulling the strings in their favor. This makes for a streamlined process built from consumer feedback that is both instant and free. Also advantageous for the little guy, these new methods allow for self-advertising in smaller businesses, alleviating budget concerns.
However, I cannot help but notice this new shift in marketing has changed the entire profession. No more romantic thoughts of creative minds in rooms collectively working on expansive campaigns to present to the public in hopes of approval. Now the willful spewing of private information made public by social media users provides a direct feed into their needs and desires. The job just doesn’t seem quite as challenging when you have the answer before you ask the question.
Sarah Rogers, February 6, 2011
Freebie
Reading Clouds for the Future of Databases
February 5, 2011
At the recent New England Database Summit held at MIT, a popular topic was the always controversial Cloud and the industry attempts to color its lining.
One speaker in particular, UMass Senior Researcher Emmanuel Cecchet, introduced a “system focused on dynamic provisioning of database resources in the cloud.” Named for the now noteworthy sheep, Dolly is database platform-agnostic and uses virtualization-based replication for efficiently spawning database replicas. The research, a joint venture between Cecchet, a colleague and two graduate students, identifies flaws in the way current databases engage cloud services. The group claims their creation will correct those issues e.g. by improving efficiency in the name of metered pricing.
Another area of interest in the cloud conversation covered at the conference was the increasing strain cloud computation places on databases. James Starkey, whose solution is an SQL based relational database to share the workload among varied clouds, is a former MySQL designer and founder of NimbusDB. Some interesting choices for new terms are tossed out there, all of which can be found in the linked presentation.
While versions from both presenters have been prepared for release, no date has been set, leaving the industry and users alike to speculate on the success of these endeavors. We’ve got the hype, now we just need the technology to back it up. We also want to see more information about search and retrieval. New cloud, old problems—only modest advancement.
Sarah Rogers, February 5, 2011
Freebie
Metadata for the iPad and Its Rich Media
February 5, 2011
If you’re a photographer and an iPad owner, you have no doubt realized that the pre-loaded Photos app leaves much to be desired. See “Expo Notes: Sort Shots iPad App Adds Metadata Features” at Macworld for the solution.
There’s no reason not to use metadata these days to tag and organize your images. Sort Shots, at $5, is an affordable way to do so on your iPad. The article gives details:
“The app now has the ability to use existing metadata and EXIF tags—a feature iPad-owning photographers have long been clamoring for. This update makes it possible to find, order, and show photos and videos according to various metadata such as keywords, date taken, and rating. The sorting tools make it easy to assemble custom slideshows. New ratings, keywords, or file names that are added within the app are kept intact upon export. “
You can use Sort Shots to save custom sorts. You can also sort images by dragging and dropping thumbnails. The app is compatible with Lightroom, Bridge, Capture NX, Aperture, and iPhoto. Can better search be coming? We hope so.
Cynthia Murrell February 5, 2011
Spinning Your CV or Resume
February 5, 2011
Top 10 Overused Phrases on Linkedin keeps haunting us. The message traffic on some of the LinkedIn groups whose updates we receive are increasingly job hunt oriented. This communicates interesting messages about what happens when a content-centric group pulls in users who are more interesting in eating than opining about the future of search, content processing, and social media. Imagine that. The most overused phrases, therefore, are becoming an increasingly important part of LinkedIn posts.
One way to do that is to really make your resume stand out. Jessica Holbrook Hernandez is the CEO of Great Resumes Fast and has compiled a list of terms that are overused and only serve to relegate your resume to the “do not call” pile.
“Instead of using these throwaway terms to describe yourself, attempt to outline specific accomplishments.”
Words like innovative, motivated, dynamic, and entrepreneurial are considered fillers and are on 99 percent of all resumes. Though these terms may describe your abilities, it’s best that you make changes to your resume immediately. Great tips, but we have already moved LinkedIn to our C list. Search systems on social services cannot deal effectively with “hire me” spam. The human moderators, once eager to maintain certain groups, seem to have a shorter and shorter half life.
Leslie Radcliffe, February 5, 2011
Freebie
MySpace, News Corp., and Credibility
February 4, 2011
I read “News Corp’s MySpace Sale Options Include New Investors, Management Buy-Out”. The story was clear. News Corp. is going to get rid of the social networking service. What caught my attention was this statement in the write up:
“The new MySpace has been very well received by the market and we have some very encouraging metrics. But the plan to allow MySpace to reach it’s full potential may be best achieved under a new owner.”
I had in my Overflight files a 2006 story in Fortune via CNNMoney.com called “News Corp. (Hearts) MySpace.” That story reported:
MySpace has simply exploded since the deal was done last July. Measured in terms of page views, MySpace has become the second-most popular site on the Internet — behind Yahoo!, but ahead of MSN, AOL and Google. It has 66 million members, and about 250,000 new ones sign up each day. That’s a mind-boggling growth trajectory for an Internet site that was launched less than three years ago. “It looks like the best acquisition we’ve made in a long, long time,” Peter Chernin, the second-in-command at News Corp., said in an interview with FORTUNE. “MySpace is the single biggest growth opportunity this company has.”
Has MySpace been the home run referenced in the 2006 story? I had tucked away a story call MySpace vs Facebook, which ran in HubPages. The original was offline when I checked this morning, but I found a copy of the 2009 article in the Google cache. TechCrunch reported in January 2009 that Facebook had 200 million unique worldwide visitors. The figure was twice MySpace’s traffic.
Short take: consumers vote with their clicks. In the click department, Facebook is at 500 or 600 million and MySpace is for sale. Does this case example shed light on the outlook for the News Corp. iPad newspaper. We think it does.
Stephen E Arnold, February 4, 2011
Freebie
Mudoch Daily for the iPad
February 4, 2011
Up front: Haven’t seen it. Don’t care. Write up called “The Daily: Five Things You Need to Know” had a quote to note. Here she be:
It cost $30 million and 100 journalists to produce it, and another $500,000 a week to keep it going. Given the parlous state of the world’s finances, we sincerely hope this is money well spent.
At $2 million a month, that is going to require more subscribers than the entire population of Harrod’s Creek.
Stephen E Arnold, February 4, 2011
US Census Counts with Endeca
February 4, 2011
Endeca as hit the metaphorical nail on the head with one of its latest endeavors. The US Census Bureau is now using Endeca Technologies business intelligence software, Endeca Latitude, to launch its new American FactFinder. We learned in “US Census Bureau launches New American FactFinder on Endeca”:
“American FactFinder makes more than 250 billion decennial census facts available and navigable to the average American, civil servants and skilled statisticians alike.”
After a preliminary rollout with American FactFinder, The Bureau challenged itself to redo the site to provide easier access to no professional or expert users. Endeca allows users to search within specified taxonomy to receive relevant search results as well as how to access the results.
I had the chance to play with American FactFinder and I must say, go, Census! Get that 2010 data into the system. Lots of changes since Year 2000. Point-and-click, canned PDF reports, and, oh, 2010, data. Did I mentioned that? Year 2000 data.
Leslie Radcliff, February 4, 2011
Freebie
Amazon and Its Cloudy Metrics
February 4, 2011
As computing based on shared resources (with the goal of channeling high performance calculation capabilities into consumer based applications) continues to gain popularity, curiosity over long range profitability and short term pest control grows increasingly more aggressive. Since 2002 with its development of cloud based services including storage, Amazon has remained an important player.
Amazon Web Services have released figures to Data Center Knowledge showing the number of “objects” their S3 service holds more than doubled over the last year—262 billion. The same entry goes on to state the request rate has exceeded two hundred thousand per second. Comparable growth has been observed concerning the launching of virtual servers through the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
As recently as 2009 it seemed Amazon had little interest in cultivating a partner program, content to provide the infrastructure and allow others to develop applications. However as the cloud universe expands and Amazon remains at its center, the relationships which were inevitable given the physics of the new cosmos seem to be forged with a whimper rather than a bang. While details are far from obscured, at times it seems one has a better chance of catching sight of a passing comet.
Our view is that it would be more meaningful to report revenues and profit/loss. I can take a single email and decompose it into lots of objects. Without a definition of substance, what’s an object? What’s 262 billion mean.
We would like to see more emphasis placed on search; for example, easy filtering of results for certain tags such as “best selling” or “available”. Just our narrow Harrod’s Creek view sparked by the Amazon Oracle offer. How will one count Oracle metrics: data size, queries per second, index size, fairy dust, or money? We vote for money, not obfuscation.
Sarah Rogers, February 4, 2011
Protected: Useful 2010 SharePoint Links for Version 2011
February 4, 2011
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
