About.com: Digital Fail?
February 22, 2012
At a time when most things digital are booming, one company trying to build a digital strategy is failing magnificently.
The New York Times announced that About.com has suffered a 67% drop in profits and that revenues are falling as well. The New York Times acquired the site in 2005 when About.com was one of the hottest sites on the Internet and has recently been trying to create a digital strategy based on high-quality content. However, according to a recent article, “The New York Time’s About.com: From All-Star to Albatross,” the change is quite visible. We learn:
… it’s unclear if About is still viable as a brand. While the company launched a marketing campaign in 2010 to differentiate it from other ‘how-to’ sites, there’s little evidence the message resonated with users. While readers may seek out individual About “guides,” the 80% search traffic figure reflects how About remains a detour not a destination for the vast majority of visitors.
The company attributes the change to Google’s decision to downgrade the company’s pages in its search results. Plausible, but I also feel the need to note that nothing digital seems to work at this outfit. Fascinating. Perhaps the company should look internally for the issue.
Andrea Hayden, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Yandex and Twitter: New Best Friends
February 21, 2012
We have been monitoring and using Yandex for a while. For some queries, Yandex is more useful than Google. The service returns results in English from www.yandex.com and in Russian from www.yandex.ru. Yandex recently invested in Blekko, a useful semantic Web search system. Yandex also enhanced its mapping functions, moved toward advertising, and enhanced the performance of its system. In short, Yandex is in a good position to launch a full scale attack on Google. A search engine which returns relevant results quickly and without the privacy, legal, and clever machinations which seem to be part of Google’s modus operandi, what’s not to like.
We learned from Reuters, a unit of the troubled Thomson Reuters’ operation, that Twitter and Yandex are now new BFFs. Navigate to “Twitter Partners with Yandex for Real-Time Search.” The news report is classic “real” journalism. The bottom line is:
Yandex have agreed a partnership that will allow Yandex to show new tweets in its search results almost instantly, as Twitter becomes an increasingly important source of real-time information.
Google seems to be losing traction with Twitter. Google is pressuring Yandex in Russia, so Yandex is likely to take action. Is Yandex the new Google? Not yet. But Google is likely to find some of the Russian wizards at Yandex as adept at math as Google’s brainiacs. In the Russian market, Google may face some bureaucratic challenges. In the US market, Google may find that its policy of going in many directions, throwing out alpha versions of products, getting caught being clever in its interpretation of privacy settings in Safari may give some users a reason to check out Blekko and Yandex.
Relevance matters to those who are looking for information. Yandex warrants a test drive. We are monitoring this new battle in the world of key word search. For now Google can only watch the new best friends hang out at an Internet cafe, billing and cooing to one another.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: SharePoint Users Break Security Breaches
February 21, 2012
Improving Search with Behavioral Analyses
February 21, 2012
I wrote my KMWorld column about the interesting system and method developed by Dr. Linda McIsaac, president of Xyte, Inc. I learned about Xyte’s work in Washington, DC. A number of Federal entities tap her company for behavior-centric research.
I interviewed Dr. McIsaac on February 15, 2012, and the information I gathered struck me as important and highly relevant to enterprise search. With users of enterprise search systems expressing significant dissatisfaction with incumbent systems, licensing a new search engine should make people happy. Well, it does not. Traditional methods of figuring out what makes a user of a findability purr does not work particularly well.
Dr. McIsaac’s method may provide a solution. I have put the full text of our conversation on my Search Wizards Speak subsite. You can access the interview at this link.
Here’s an example of the outputs her research approach:
Xyte provides a system science model and a structure that identifies the way people function intellectually by classifying their cognitive information-processing capabilities presented as a logical system of relationships among various human capabilities. In simple terms, Xyte’s system provides a structure based on a proven theory which is predictive of the way individuals think and process information and then act consistently. No other system is predictive.
I was able to gather some information about the type of findings she delivers to clients. She told me:
Xyte surveyed each of what we call cognofiles or behavioral sets of the Xyting Insight™ system about usage of social media to determine who is most apt to use these computer applications. Not all consumers are eager to use Facebook or use it consistently. According a recent Xyte study, 27 percent of the population has never logged in to Facebook and another 20 percent only log in once or more a month. Data from our study suggest that some of the broad generalizations about social media, particularly as a replacement for a search system or face-to-face interaction are inaccurate. That means that advertisers are missing 47 percent of the population. However, 38 percent do log in daily and 16 percent do log in several times a week. The population segment that most frequents Facebook has a number of characteristics; for example, showing great compassion for others, wanting to be emotionally connected with others, having a natural intuition about people and how to relate to them, adapting well to change, embracing technology such as the Internet, and enjoying gossip and messages delivered in story form and liking to read and write.
For more information about Xyte, navigate to www.xyte.com. The complete interview is at http://www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak/xyte.html
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
CIOs Focusing on Enterprise and Reducing IT in 2012
February 21, 2012
As we move six weeks into 2012, we wonder what companies are focusing on this year when it comes to technology. Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, took on the task of polling over 2000 CIOs to answer that question. The results were discussed in Technology is ‘Amplifying’ the Enterprise, but Diminishing IT.”
Budget is still in the forefront this year and “the continued poor economy is causing many global IT budgets to remain relatively flat for the foreseeable future.” Mark McDonald, group vice president for Gartner Executive Programs and Gartner Fellow, explains that:
“Technology’s role in the enterprise is increasing, but this does not mean, that the role of the IT organization is increasing… CIOs concentrating on IT as a force of operational automation, integration and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation.”
The top ten priorities for 2012 are:
- Analytics and business intelligence.
- Mobile technologies.
- Cloud computing – SaaS, IaaS, PaaS
- Collaboration/workflow technologies.
- Legacy modernization.
- IT management.
- CRM
- ERP applications
- Security
- Virtualization.
We are not surprised to see mobile technology climbing towards the top. Software companies are regularly creating reliable and affordable mobile apps. Inforbix recently released an iPad app that allows users to search for CAD and product data on-the-go. We would not be surprised if mobile technology captured the top spot in 2013.
Jennifer Wensink, February 21, 2012
Using SharePoint Effectively: Simple Tips for your Users
February 21, 2012
As a follow up to the popular, “7 Ways to Use SharePoint Effectively,” the SharePoint Engine Blog published, “7 More Tips for SharePoint Success.” The brief list of tips are full of handy and effective ways to keep your business processes and business intelligence on track, mainly through simple, yet efficient document management features.
Some of the SharePoint Engine tips include opening up documents to collaborators and training all staff to do likewise. This will contribute to the sense of teamwork and get communication and ideas flowing. During training, include a how-to on restoring previous document versions to eliminate the time spent on re-writing or re-constructing content that has already been built. And add some flexibility to the work environment:
Allow for telecommuting for specific tasks, such as training. It’s easy to set up documents and other training materials that can be pulled from anywhere that gives you access to the web. This lets those who are sick at home stay up on work, cuts cost during training, and gives you an additional incentive by which to retain your top talent.
Building a sense of teamwork and collaboration among your users will improve the use and adoption of SharePoint capabilities, which will lead to idea development and collaboration in pursuit of your business goals. To get the most out of your SharePoint and enterprise search investments, look to Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
The new release of Mindbreeze displays a simple and easy to navigate search feature with index tabs that break down search results in specific groups and topics. With this feature, users can immediately see what documents contain their search term and in what context it is mentioned, meaning a fast search and find experience. Daniel Fallmann of Mindbreeze explains the search capabilities:
It is our goal to tame the information overload. Through semantics and relevance you don’t just get exact results, but also a better overview. If you are searching for files, for example, you will also find relevant documents and not just search result hits that contain the search term.
Check out the full suite of products at Mindbreeze to find the solution for your document collaboration needs.
Philip West, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Pentaho and Its Hot Kettle
February 21, 2012
Here’s some more open source intelligence activity for you. “Pentaho Open-Sources Kettle Big Data Analytics Tools” under the Apache 2.0 license, reports eWeek. Writer Darryl K. Taft notes:
Because Apache is the license under which Hadoop and several of the leading NoSQL databases are published, this move will further accelerate the rapid adoption of Pentaho Kettle for Big Data by developers, analysts and data scientists as the go-to tool for taking advantage of big data, the company said.
Pentaho claims that its Kettle for Big Data boosts developer productivity tenfold through its visual tools. It also, they say, expands usability of big data platforms; taps into the full capabilities of big data platforms through native integration; and smoothly leads you and your data into the discovery and visualization tools of Pentaho Business Analytics.
The article quotes representatives from 10gen, Cloudera, and Hadapt who are positive on the shift. We are waiting to see if open source really means open. Google, as we recall, has a different spin on open.
Cynthia Murrell, February 06, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google and the Data of Users
February 21, 2012
Tech Radar interviews former Googler Brian Fitzpatrick in “Google: Why It’s Important You Can Get Hold of Your Data.” Fitzpatrick founded the Data Liberation Front, the Google engineering team which makes it easier for users to move their data into and out of Google products. Why would the company want to make it easier to leave? The write up quotes Fitzpatrick:
“The way we keep you as users is to make it better. Rapid innovation, rapid iteration. So we thought, ‘If we make it even easier for people to leave our products, we’re going to be forced to iterate even more quickly, and make our products better’. Everybody benefits from that, right? Users benefit from it, and we benefit because we’re competing really fairly. I mean, as an engineer, I’d much rather build a better product than build bigger walls around a product.
According to Fitzpatrick, Google head Eric Schmidt was enthused about the idea from the start. It is gradually affecting the way new products evolve because developers are working to keep in mind the mechanisms for data withdrawal.
Not many users have taken advantage of Google Takeout, the page from which users can download all of their Google-stored data. Apparently, though, just knowing it is there makes people more comfortable. Do you find this comment interesting in the shadow of the Safari privacy work around Google inadvertently stumbled into? I do. Say one thing. Do another methinks.
Cynthia Murrell, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
What Is Lightbound, Formerly iQuest Analytics?
February 21, 2012
iQuest Analytics was founded in 2005 by Peter Gloor, who continues as president and chief science officer, to innovate and deliver world class and best of breed search technology solutions that solve critical knowledge issues around speed, relevance, and efficiency. The company, we believe, is now Lightbound.
Its iQuest Software Suite, an integrated software suite that combines social network analysis, auto-categorization with text extraction technologies to analyze unstructured data, was named a KMWorld Trend-Setting Product in 2009.
iQuest Discovery is the company’s enterprise search, research, and discovery (eSRD) solution that utilizes a technology architecture based on combined proprietary dynamic data structure innovations, natural language processing, and “parts of speech” to deliver optimized, efficient and relevant search results. This combination enables high-speed performance and lower cost of ownership and allows researchers to retrieve results that are both intuitive and non-intuitive. iQuest is able to analyze unrelated collections of documents to automatically surface patterns and associations by clustering previously unconnected documents, blogs, RSS feeds, email and other unstructured data. It employs unique Social Network Analysis algorithms combined with token and link extraction to find hidden relationships and mission-critical undiscovered information by mining unstructured data from large document stores, the Web, email logs, phone archives, message boards, blogs and enterprise intranets.
By developing a solution that rapidly identifies relationships between previously unconnected data, iQuest and partner SGI have made it possible for the intelligence community to flag in near real time anomalous behavior that bears scrutiny as a possible danger to national security.
iQuest is the leading provider of eSRD software for the life sciences, intelligence, law enforcement, regulatory, legal, and research and development industries.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Enter Searchandising: No Longer Ecommerce Search?
February 21, 2012
Yep, another new word for ecommerce search.
Searchandising, an odd blend of search and ecommerce, is making the blogosphere. Retail Gazette asks, “Searchandising—Ending Search Engine Dominance?” The article explains,
Crucially, e-commerce can be used to drive any search provider by supplying well organized information about products, customers and business rules to build powerful search indexes. Perhaps now is the time for e-commerce platforms to fully integrate searchandising and to deliver the full benefits of searchandising without the overheads.
Wait, doesn’t Amazon already do that?
Perhaps writer Roger Mitchell is simply applying the newish term to a direction already being pursued by merchandisers. Since the search field is often the first place potential customers go on any retail site, honing the behavior of that little rectangle is essential to maximizing profits. Webmasters must balance analytics and filtering with the imperative to avoid site slow-down. No one has time for anything but instant results anymore.
What software should retailers turn to? Enterprise search products certainly have the capability; in fact, they have too many options that merchants don’t need but will pay handsomely for. Commerce solutions have historically had performance issues, though a commenter to this article says that is no longer the case with the examples cited. Be that as it may, Mitchell recommends an open source product like Solr.
Cynthia Murrell, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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