Navigation Misses the Point of Search and Retrieval
March 18, 2013
How does one become a sheeple? One answer is, “Accept search outputs without critical thinking.”
I don’t want to get into a squabble with the thinkers at Nielsen Norman Group. I suggest you read “Converting Search into Navigation” and then reflect on the fact that this was the basic premise of Endeca and then almost every other search vendor on the planet since the late 1990s. The idea is that users prefer to click than type queries or, better yet, have the system just tell the user what he or she wants without having to do so much as make a click.
Humans want information and most humans don’t want to expend much, if any, effort getting “answers.” In the late 1970s, I worked on a Booz, Allen & Hamilton study which revealed that managers in that pre-Internet Dark Age got information by asking the first person encountered in the hall, a person whom an executive could get on the phone, or by flipping through the old school trade magazines which once flowed into in boxes.
A happy quack to http://red-pill.org/are-you-one-of-the-sheeple-take-the-quiz/
What’s different today? According to the write up, as I understand it, not too much. The article asserts:
Users are incredibly bad at finding and researching things on the web. A few years ago, I characterized users’ research skills as “incompetent,” and they’ve only gotten worse over time. “Pathetic” and “useless” are words that come to mind after this year’s user testing.
There you go. When top quality minds like those Booz, Allen & Hamilton tried to hire took the path of least resistance almost 50 years ago, is it a big surprise that people are clueless when it comes to finding information?
The point of the article is that people who make interfaces have to design for mediocre searchers. Mediocre? How about terrible, clueless, inept, or naive? The article says:
… you should redirect users from a normal SERP to a category page only when their query is unambiguous and exactly matches the category. A search for “3D TV” could go to the subcategory page for these products, but a search for “3D” should generate a regular SERP. (Costco does this correctly, including both 3D televisions and other products relevant to the query.) Until people begin to grasp the complexities of search and develop skills accordingly, businesses that take such extra steps to help users find what they need will improve customer success — and the bottom line.
My view is just a little bit different and not parental like the preceding paragraph.
New Updates to Solr and Lucene
March 18, 2013
Apache Solr and Lucene are notable for good maintenance and frequent updates. These updates are one of the many reasons why Solr and Lucene are considered top choices in open source software. Another upgrade has just been announced in the default codec update 4.2. Read all the details in the article, “Apache Solr and Lucene 4.2 Update Default Codec Again.”
The article sums up some of the improvements:
“The Solr search platform now has a REST API which allows developers to read the schema; support for writing the schema is coming. DocValues are now integrated with Solr and as they allow faster loading and can use different compression algorithms, the integration offers a wide range of feature possibilities and performance benefits. Collections now support aliasing allowing for reindexing and swapping while in production, and the Collections API has now been improved to make it easier to ‘see how things turned out.’ It is also now possible to interact with a collection in a node even if it doesn’t have a replica on that node.”
The full details of the changes can be read in the Lucene 4.2 and Solr 4.2 release notes. When foundational software is improved, the value-added software attached to it gets an automatic upgrade as well. This is the case with LucidWorks and their suite of search offerings built upon the open source strength of Lucene and Solr. Interestingly, LucidWorks has been criticized for not having a RESTful API, but with the newest upgrade to Solr, the claim is no longer valid. LucidWorks will no doubt remain on top.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Google Commerce Creates Opportunities for Others
March 18, 2013
Google Commerce seems to have gone the way of so many other seemingly good ideas from the search giant: it was sent out to the pasture. However, this leaves an interesting wake as we discovered in a recent Virtual Strategy story, “EasyAsk Announces Google Commerce Replacement Program.”
The article shares:
“The search industry is undergoing an enormous change as the largest companies in the world evolve from simple Keyword Search to a more advanced, semantic Natural Language search model. IBM Watson, Apple Siri, and even Google Internet search are now deploying smarter search algorithms that don’t rely on Keyword Search. Since 2001, EasyAsk has lead the industry in providing the fastest, most accurate search results for online shoppers using Natural Language search that understands the context of the search query.”
Despite some initial fears, this is an exciting time for search. With Google’s flawed Commerce program out of the way, we suspect there will be a rise in others who will pick up the slack. Interestingly, EasyAsk has the early lead in this race and one we suspect they will hold on to. Ever since the company rolled out it’s Quiri (a Siri-like verbal component), we’ve had a feeling this was a hot company on the rise. Now, with Google Commerce gone, we know it’s a fact.
Patrick Roland, March 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Frost and Sullivan Set the Standard In Enterprise Market
March 18, 2013
Frost and Sullivan have been shining a light on the most brilliant tech companies around for as long as we can remember. So when the company decided to shine that light on its favorite company of 2013, we paid close attention. We got the exciting news from a recent Reuters release, “Frost & Sullivan Lauds OpenText for Consistently Staying Ahead of Product Development Curve in the Enterprise Digital Media Market.”
The story went into great detail, beginning with:
“OpenText’s recent rebranding of its enterprise content management (ECM) solution, including all of its peripheral and best-of-breed complementary business lines, into a single Enterprise Information Management (EIM) platform represents a significant realignment of its solutions. OpenText is the first to market with a broad platform geared toward the specific needs and performance demands of users from across the organization.”
This is a big deal for a growing company like OpenText. The wave of the magic wand from Frost has been a harbinger of good things to come. Chief among these harbingers has been their partnership program. Regardless of how a rising company is associated with Frost, it is a good sign. It means one of the biggest names in search has a lot of faith in that company and, by extension, so do we.
Patrick Roland, March 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Tag Management Systems Use Governance to Improve Indexing
March 18, 2013
An SEO expert advocates better indexing in the recent article “Top 5 Arguments For Implementing a Tag Management Solution” on Search Engine Watch. The article shares that because of increased functionality and matured capabilities of such systems, tag management is set for a “blowout year” in 2013.
Citing such reasons as ease of modifying tags and cost reduction, it is easy to see how businesses will begin to adopt these systems if they haven’t already. I found the point on code portability and becoming vendor agnostic most appealing:
“As the analytics industry matures, many of us are faced with sharing information between different systems, which can be a huge challenge with respect to back-end integrations. Tag management effectively bridges the gap between several front-end tagging methodologies that can be used to leverage existing development work and easily port information from one script or beacon to another.”
I think this is a very interesting concept and I love the notion of governance as a way to improve indexing. I am reminded of the original method from the days of the library at Ephesus. Next month, the same author will tackle the most common arguments against implementing a tag management system. We will keep an eye out.
Andrea Hayden, March 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Beyond Search Pirated Twitter Stream
March 17, 2013
Several of the goslings have been in contact with Twitter. So far the teen age funster continues to use this somewhat unexciting blog to disseminate information about various activities of little interest to a 69 year old or the librarians assisting me. We will keep you informed but for now, just unfollow the Beyond Search stream on Twitter. What’s interesting is that Twitter is “trying” to assist us. Hmm.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2013, 9 30 am Eastern
Does Google Learn Lessons?
March 17, 2013
I read an impassioned article called “Google Is about to Learn a Tough Lesson.” I beg to differ. the author asserts:
Google made a big mistake cancelling Google Reader that will have severe ripple effects to its empire.
Then I learn about “three self inflicted wounds.” This is the 21st century equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot I think. First, Google does not get social. Okay, I buy that. Google is into me-too in the hopes of making money. I don’t think Google is a particularly fun company. Second, Google takes act ions which harms its products. My view is that I am not sure the “now” Google is worried about much more than keeping revenues up. Third, Google will kill what it wants. Big surprise? Not to me.
The point of the write up is that a commercial enterprise trying to avoid deterioration of its core online advertising business as online access shifts from the comfortable world of the desktop browser to wild, crazy mobile access is going to take steps to make money.
A feedreader is simply one example of Google’s efforts to tame its controlled chaos approach to management, find ways to reduce costs, and produce a profit which keeps the Google chugging along.
Big thoughts about philosophy? Maybe. But the focus is on avoiding a flat line in revenue and controlling the costs of doing the “all” type of service which is being marginalized.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2013
Oracle has a Hand in Many Cookie Jars
March 17, 2013
Oracle has long been seen as the kingpin of the analytic industry. That could be tough for their competition to argue with, especially after a recent report from Market Watch, “Oracle Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms.”
Gartner, Inc. identified Oracle as being in the Leaders Quadrant of its 2013 report, Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms. This is the seventh consecutive year for Oracle has been given this distinction.
Here’s what the article had to say:
“Gartner’s Magic Quadrant reports position vendors within a particular quadrant based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute… Oracle’s positioning in the Leaders Quadrant showcases how Oracle Business Analytics portfolio provides customers with an end-to-end family of analytic solutions ranging from descriptive to prescriptive based on a comprehensive set of BI, advanced analytics and CPM functionality that is also integrated and optimized with the Oracle technology stack.”
That is another impressive accolade to add to their mantle. However, it begs the question: what about the properties which comprise Oracle. Are those leaders too? This company is one that has its hand in many, many cookie jars. While we do not have direct experience with them all, it is safe to say not everything owns Oracle’s mastery, such as their analytics arm. This is to say that the homework required by choosing a new product still needs to be done, even for a company like Oracle.
Patrick Roland, March 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Visisimo Marketing Director Talks Vast Possibilities with Big Data
March 16, 2013
While anyone with their ear to the ground probably already knows that Vivisimo is expanding on its marketing efforts to be classified as a big data leader, all of the implications may not have been revealed just yet. A recent Pittsburgh Business TImes article, “A Big Discussion on Big Data,” clued us in.
IBM’s program director of big data marketing, Saman Haqqi, was included on a panel hosted last week at IBM. The panel was organized by MIT Enterprise Forum of Pittsburgh.
The article offered some insight into her perspective:
“Living in a world where data is everywhere and a huge amount of what we touch is now collecting this information the opportunity for working with “big data” is vast. ‘Just the way the Internet changed us in 20 or 30 years, big data will change how we live, work and play over the next 30 years,’ said Saman Haqqi, program director of big data marketing at IBM (formerly Vivisimo). The possibilities she said can’t be understated since already it touches everything from better weather forecasting to genomics research.”
This is interesting news, but there could be a potential complication with IBM and their big data powerhouse Watson. We wonder if this is a sign that IBM is moving on and focusing on the less flashy, but more practical business intelligence solutions for enterprise organizations, medical industries and others. We would not be too surprised if the super analytic brain slowly faded into the background.
Patrick Roland, March 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Mark Bennett on Open Source Search
March 15, 2013
Mark Bennett is a recent edition to the LucidWorks team, after New Idea Engineering joined LucidWorks. Steven Arnold recently interviewed Bennett for his noteworthy series, Search Wizard Speak. “An Interview with Mark Bennett,” can be found on the ArnoldIT Web site.
After discussing many of the latest trends in search, Arnold and Bennett turn to the question of proprietary search solutions, and how they are responding to the surge in open source.
Bennett weighs in:
“Some organizations will use open source because its efficiencies are recognized by management. Other organizations will embrace open source because a vendor offers 24×7 support like LucidWorks and has world class engineers available to customize the system. The feature-set is different as well, enterprise buyers care about analytics and data quality, and would prefer a graphical UI. Other organizations will stick with what has been traditionally licensed year after year indifferent to the fact that what’s in an IBM solution may be open source or totally proprietary like Oracle Endeca or Oracle InQuira.”
Bennett is a great addition to the LucidWorks team, which has expanded again recently with the addition of Stephen Tsuchiyama as SVP. LucidWorks is increasing their staff to meet the growing demands of open source software for the enterprise. But LucidWorks is not just responding to a trend, they have been a leader in search and customer service for years, so they are also benefiting from their stellar reputation.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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