Recrawl Searches Your Browser History
September 19, 2011
You know you saw a website, but you don’t have the URL and you can’t remember how you got there. Ever happened to you? It happens to everyone in our culture of technological ADHD. Shallow thinking is encouraged by our “click and browse” society. For all of us there is help – there is Recawl.
Recawl is a fast and efficient way to find information and pages from your browsing history. The idea was borne out of frustration at not being able to find a page, despite knowing that it had already been visited . . . Recawl automatically indexes every page you visit and lets you do full-text search on the content of all those pages. This makes recalling information from your browsing history much faster & easier, without the need to bookmark anything.
Your history is available for search on any computer via the Recawl site. The extension is currently only available for Chrome. However, we can see a demand for this sort of service, one that elevates or potentially eliminates the bookmarking trend.
This new angle on search of course poses security questions. No doubt privacy will be a concern.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 19, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
MaxxCAT Claws into the Search Appliance Market
September 19, 2011
A news item, “Strengthen Your Enterprise Search with a Highly Optimized Search Appliance from MaxxCAT,” focuses on MaxxCAT, a competitor to Google Search and Thunderstone Search appliances. we learned:
No matter what size or style of business that you have, MaxxCAT can offer a solution for your enterprise search that is easily scalable as your data storage and recovery needs grow. In most cases, upgrading is as simple as adding another appliance to your rack mount.
According to the MaxxCAT website, the Pittsburgh based company was founded in 2007, a relative newcomer to the world of enterprise search. They claim to provide the highest performing search solutions at the lowest price points in the industry. The story asserts:
MaxxCAT’s product line has grown from a single high performance machine, the original SB-250, to a comprehensive line of high availability, high performance, low cost solutions that address some of the leading edge requirements of today’s search industry.
The prices are certainly competitive, and the line-up of offered products is diverse. While not yet the top player in the market, MaxxCAT could certainly move up the ranks as efficient but affordable search solutions are sought in the current sobering economic climate. Beyond Search has a soft spot in its heart for Pittsburgh-based firms. Our founder, Stephen E Arnold, attended Duquesne University while indexing Latin sermons and then he and his partners sold The Point (Top 5% of the Internet) to Lycos more than 15 years ago. Hilly place, however.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 19, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Google Innovation Continues Despite Google Labs Closure
September 19, 2011
Google made its name in online search and continues to lead the pack. But even those who don’t prefer Google for search have to admire the company’s devotion to innovation. Google Labs has been Google’s innovation showroom, but is sadly slated to be closed as featured in, “5 Other Google Labs That Will Help To Keep You Informed About Google Developments.”
Google recently announced that it is putting the padlock on Google Labs, the experimental section from where many groundbreaking ideas (yup, even Gmail and Google Reader) spewed forth. The recent announcement did not shed light on the specific closure date or the fate of each product that’s still gestating there. So, until the last proverbial nail is hit on the coffin, you can still traipse around signs that say – Shh! Men at work.
If you visit Google Labs today, you will see notices next to many of the features stating that they will either be phased out within a certain time frame, or graduated out of labs and folded into other Google features. Take some time to read the article and catch up on some of Google Labs latest features. And before it’s too late, visit Google Labs and admire some of the innovative features offered there. But cost cutting is cost cutting, innovative or not.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 19, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
SharePoint People Picker
September 19, 2011
The general public mostly views Silverlight as the application that allows them to watch streaming Netflix movies on their PC or Mac, but to SharePoint developers it is an entire toolbox to create clever and interesting web parts. The Share-n-Dipity Blog wrote a neat article on how to make one of these web parts, “Writing a SharePoint 2010 People Picker Control for Silverlight.”
The Silverlight toolbox is missing a people picker control, but it is available in SharePoint (PeopleEditor class). We learned:
The key to making this thing work is a nice little Web service that SharePoint ships out of the box called the People web service. In this case I used method called SearchPrincipals to take the text that was typed in the Search box and find a list of possible matches. In my simple case I only needed to find one and one only user. However I could have also asked for groups, distribution lists, or SharePoint security groups. You could also implement your own version of the type-in control by letting someone type in a name and then calling the ResolvePrincipals method on the Web service.
The code for this web part is attached at the end of the article. This is an example of how two toolboxes can work together to create a useful web part.
SurfRay offers a search and content processing system which can make entitites easily findable. To learn more about the Ontolica system, point your browser to www.surfray.com. You can pinpoint people plus places, products, and things.
Stephen E Arnold, September 19, 2011
New Semantic Features Raise Search Engine Bar
September 19, 2011
Just as Google is dropping juicy hints of what is next to increase the search engine’s usefulness, a new search technology has been released by Wellington company, SYL Enterprise Search.
The article, Wellington Developer Refines Word Search Tool, on Computer World, explains how the new search engine is different from the rest out in the market. With more and more data on the web, rather online or in a company’s files, the article reports that those searching for information spend 25% of their time sifting through the tons of information at their fingertips. With so much money being lost to non-productivity, companies are constantly looking for a new and improved search engine to manage massive amounts of data.
Previously, some great search models have come out, but either allow too much access to sensitive information (major security risk!) or rely on user specificity when searching. SYL Enterprise Search has proposed an answer to both these problems in the form of their new search engine. The article explains the new product as,
The patented technology allows content to be processed as language, not just words occurring in documents. The engine, known as SYLSemantics, automatically understands synonyms and relationships, allowing it to consider a much broader portion of content when evaluating a search request.
While this technology is aimed at businesses and institutions, not the average Googler at home, it does raise the bar in search engine usefulness. As advances in technology continue search engines like Google must be at the top of their game to continue captivating audiences. Whether Google will, indeed, create a new generation of search is yet to be seen, but what is known is that the industry leader must produce something more productive that what currently is available if they want to continue to lead the search engine Olympics.
Catherine Lamsfuss, September 19, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Bing Search Share Factoid
September 18, 2011
I read “With Bartz Gone – Wither Bing?” and noted this factoid:
According to Web analytics tracker Net Applications, Microsoft’s Bing search engine share of 1.18 percent globally combined with Yahoo’s share (running Bing infrastructure) of 5.63 percent share still only comes in at a meager 6.81 percent total compared to Google’s 92.04 percent.
Interesting number particularly in light of the European Commission’s interest in Google. Is the Google share of the search market in Europe similar to the US data? Is Google’s share of European community nation search higher?
Stephen E Arnold, September 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Roll Out In App Search
September 18, 2011
Customized search engines are a luxury that most businesses cannot afford. With the InApp software, developers, integrators, providers, and manufacturers can benefit from Fabasoft Mindbreeze technology with very little integration effort. Details are given in, “Using InApp to Search-enable your Applications.”
Fabasoft Mindbreeze InApp provides a platform that runs under both Linux and Windows. It can be integrated in applications using whatever language, but providing samples for one of the following programming languages out of the box: Java, C# or C++. Open interfaces and multiple configuration options leave room for adapting to individual requirements.
The software development kit can be downloaded and tutorials are provided. Developers find that “Fabasoft Mindbreeze InApp provides a fast and reliable search experience for them and a number of dynamic and access-checked search facets based on the extracted and retrieved metadata, that help the user to refine their searches.”
This is an interesting idea, allowing developers to implement customized search into businesses where otherwise it would not be practical.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Flock of Articles Provides Search Summary
September 18, 2011
Chris Dale’s rundown of the latest tech news is quite useful. “A Flock of Articles on Computer-Assisted Document Review,” will quickly get you up to date on recent developments. Half a dozen articles are highlighted, with commentary provided for each.
Here’s Dale’s commentary:
Look next at an article in Legal Technology News by Farrah Pepper, of counsel at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher called Robot Review: Will predictive coding win the trust of the courts? Like Judge Peck in the speech reported in my article, Farrah Pepper reviews some of the cases and learned papers.
The issue comes to the surface as Recommind applied for a patent for its predictive coding technology. He asserts:
Predictive coding software providers claim they can automate much of the document review process, with human guidance. Documents can be prioritized into likely order of importance, typically based on a “learning set” of documents coded up front by a subject matter expert, they explain. That essentially creates a rebuttable presumption of relevance for other coding that can be tested via sampling and revised if necessary. Then, the argument goes, the attorneys leading the case can dig into the substance a whole lot faster.
Keep an eye on the matter as it continues to develop. The courts will have to decide on the issue one way or another, as technology will continue to push.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Ami Nets Ofqual
September 17, 2011
Short honk: Ami, an enterprise intelligence software company, announced that it licensed its enterprise software to Ofqual. Ofqual, for my non UK readers, is the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. Ami, earlier this year, released version 6 of its system. The company has moved to new UK offices at St Johns Innovation Centre, Cambridge. The new offices accommodate a growing UK team and expanding UK customer base, asserts the firm. For more information about Ami, navigate to http://www.amisw.com/en/.
Stephen E Arnold, September 17, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Social Media: Is There a Scare Factor?
September 17, 2011
From the “Do You Need to Be Reminded” Desk: Social media mining is a growing field, one that deals with parsing meaning out of the big data generated by social networks. Valuable to advertisers, but potentially also to employers, law enforcement, and even criminals, this data can generate relevant information about individuals and groups. But how do we know if it’s accurate? Eric Naone explores in, “When Social Media Mining Gets it Wrong.”
…In Las Vegas, at the computer security conference Black Hat, Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professor of information technology and public policy at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, showed how a photograph of a person can be used to find his or her date of birth, social security number, and other information by using facial recognition technology to match the image to a profile on Facebook and other websites. Acquisti acknowledges the privacy implications of this work, but he warns that the biggest problem could be the inaccuracy of this and other data-mining techniques.
If the privacy aspect of social media mining doesn’t scare you, the inaccuracy of the technology should. Correlations made from individuals’ social “likes” and comments are weak at best. If companies try to implement usage of big data gleaned from social media, it will no doubt push the issue into political debate in order to prevent misuse and breaches of privacy. Now what about social search? Worth considering?
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 17, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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