Learn NSA Secrets for Search
June 4, 2013
Wired reports that just about anyone can become a Sherlock Holmes of sorts and uncover intelligence hidden within the Internet. The article, “Use These Secret NSA Google Search Tips to Become Your Own Spy Agency” shares the link to a 643 page book written for NSA cyber spies. Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research is a PDF file and was released by NSA after MuckRock filed a FOIA request.
The book was published by the Center for Digital Content of the National Security Agency. Not only does it cover tips and tricks for search engines but it also delves into the Internet Archive and other online tools.
The article calls attention to the chapter entitled Google Hacking:
“Say you’re a cyber spy for the NSA and you want sensitive inside information on companies in South Africa. What do you do? Search for confidential Excel spreadsheets the company inadvertently posted online by typing “filetype:xls site:za confidential” into Google, the book notes. Want to find spreadsheets full of passwords in Russia? Type “filetype:xls site:ru login.” Even on websites written in non-English languages the terms “login,” “userid,” and “password” are generally written in English, the authors helpfully point out.”
This interesting how-to will likely garner quite a bit of attention but as the article points out, this is not new information. Johnny Long’s Google Hacking covers similar topics but and the author of the NSA guide acknowledges this; however, the author also points out that (dissimilar to Long’s perspective) cracking websites and servers is not encouraged.
Megan Feil, June 04, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Third Quarter Report on Open Text Financials
June 4, 2013
Third quarter earnings information is coming in and many companies are sharing their results. Open Text, a leader in the Forrester Wave Smart Process Applications, has announced theirs through a press release on their site: “Open Text Reports Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2013 Financial Results and Announces Quarterly Dividend Program.” The information is broken up into three categories: financial highlights, business highlights and dividend program highlights.
The financial highlights caught our eyes. Some of the numbers reported were that cloud services revenue was $44.4 million and license revenue was $69 million, up 16% Y/Y.
According to the article, OpenText CEO Mark J. Barrenechea states:
“We are committed to delivering value to our stockholders through technology innovation, strategic acquisitions and now through a dividend. We generated $333.1 million in operating cash flow over the last twelve months and we are running our business at record operating margins. We have always been committed to rewarding our stockholders’ investments in OpenText and the Board has decided that it is the right time to declare a dividend for our stockholders.”
The financial side of things for Open Text looks to be a mix of good news and bad news. Margins are narrowing and Q3 2013 revenue was down from Q2 2013.
Megan Feil, June 04, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Advances in Search Drive Big Data Future
June 4, 2013
Big Data is getting the lion’s share of attention in the enterprise search market. As the cost of data storage continues to plummet, even smaller organizations are interested in capturing the meaning that may exist in massive amounts of routine data, or Big Data. So the Big Data market is exploding. Smart Data Collective is tracking the trends in their article, “7 Big Data Trends That Will Impact Your Business.”
The article highlights trends that will impact the average business. The third trend noted is advances in search and LucidWorks is a standout contender in this category:
“Sifting through massive amounts of data to find that preverbal needle in the haystack is no simple task. Over time we will likely see more big data solutions injecting search support into their solutions. Leading the way in this endeavor are LucidWorks, IBM, Oracle through the acquisition of Endeca (full disclosure, I’m a former Endeca employee), Autonomy and MarkLogic. LucidWorks combines an open source stack of Lucene/Solr, Hadoop, Mahout and NLP.”
So for those who are interested in capturing and using Big Data, but want an interface they can negotiate, LucidWorks is a great choice. Their LucidWorks Big Data is an application development platform that incorporates the power of Lucene, Solr, Hadoop, Hive, and other major open source powerhouses into a usable, efficient platform. Try it and see.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 4, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Facebook Losing Ground with Teens
June 3, 2013
Oh, oh. Is Facebook falling down? The wildly successful creation of the young Zuckerberg is beginning to show its age, and teenagers are now refusing to be seen with it. The Motley Fool informs us, “Facebook No Longer Home to Teens.” Writer Mark Holder argues that recent media attention on Facebook’s mobile Home app and its Graph search misses an important part of the picture—the site’s shrinking audience among young people. The article reveals:
“The bigger issue not generally addressed is that all the new revenue monetization issues won’t matter if Facebook follows the path of all other social networks. Eventually users tire of the service and move onto the next hot social network. The new set of teens aren’t as interested in following the footsteps of the teens from 5 years ago akin to a nightclub typically having a limited length of popularity.”
The write-up goes on to present a chart of “estimated reach” statistics from Facebook itself, and notes:
“The chart shows that the 18-24 year old group lost the largest amount of users in the last 3 months at over 2 million. The second largest group was the 25-34 year olds at nearly 2 million users. Ironically the only group to gain was the 65+ year old group that likely diminishes the younger groups desire to stay on the site. It’s one thing to deal with a nosy parent, but showing your wild party pics to your grandparents is a whole different issue.”
I suppose. Whatever the reason, Holder takes investors to task for ignoring reality in favor of Facebook’s shiny-new innovations. Perhaps, though, the social leader can find a way to turn the trend around, or to minimize its impact. Stranger things have happened.
Cynthia Murrell, June 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Dataversity Interviews TopQuadrant
June 3, 2013
After a quiet period, TopQuadrant is back in the news. A representative of the semantic technology firm spoke with Dataversity, which shares the interview in its “Sponsor Spotlight Column: TopQuadrant on Information Solutions.” The discussion focuses on TopQuadrant’s place in the industry and their current endeavors.
Of particular interest to Dataversity were solutions highlighted at the recent Enterprise Data World Conference (EDW), of which TopQuadrant was a Silver Sponsor. The interview is a good read for anyone interested in TopQuadrant, including discussion of the company’s strengths and perspectives as well as its products. When asked to predict the “next big thing,” the company answered:
“In the context of Data Management, it means much easier unified access to data. Workers today are not only more technology savvy, but they also have high expectations about what they should easily be able to do with data. These expectations are brought on by the prevalence of search engines like Google, collaborative information sharing applications such as Facebook and Flickr, easy-to-use mashup and visualization applications. Workers no longer accept that access to another enterprise data source will require months of development. They want faster access, more intimacy with the data and better ability to collaborate with colleagues on analyzing the data and on defining its meaning.”
So they do. Established in 2001, TopQuadrant recognizes the need to stay ahead by keeping on top of emerging technologies. The company serves clients in Europe and the U.S. from offices in Virginia, North Carolina, and the U.K.
Cynthia Murrell, June 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Programming for Android Fragmentation
June 3, 2013
Google’s open approach to its mobile OS has long vexed those who prefer consistency. Mixpanel addresses Google Android fragmentation in its “Data Snapshot: The Big, Fragmented World of Android.” The article analyzes but two of the several differences between Android devices. It explains:
“The fragmented world of Android means [developers] have to work harder to reach consumers on that platform. The combination of different versions of the OS, screen sizes, screen densities, and resolutions presents developers with a matrix of variables and they have to decide what they want to support, knowing that wide support has a direct trade off in increased development time.
“This Data Snapshot takes a quick look at Android fragmentation by two of these variables: Device Model and Screen Resolution. The consumer activity by version of the Android OS chart on Mixpanel Trends gives insight into fragmentation at OS version level.”
Though Samsung dominates the Android device field (producing eight of the top ten), model fragmentation is still a big issue; analysts found the vast majority of activity is spread across the devices below the top ten. As for screen resolution, a hefty 63 percent of Android activity takes place in the top three resolutions (480×800, 720×1280, and 320×480, in that order.) However, it should be noted that a total of 11 resolutions are represented.
These are just a couple examples of the differences developers must contend with across Android devices. Google supplies some guidelines on dealing with these deviations here and here.
Cynthia Murrell, June 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
LucidWorks to Attend OSCON
June 3, 2013
LucidWorks has always had a commitment to the open source developer community, but they are truly stepping it up this spring and summer as they make the rounds in conference season. They have sponsored and attended many world-class events. Next on their plate is OSCON.
Read the conference teaser:
“OSCON is the best place on the planet to prepare for what comes next, from learning new skills to understanding how new and emerging open source technologies are going to impact how we live, work, and do business. In keeping with its O’Reilly heritage, OSCON is a unique gathering of all things open source, where participants find inspiration, confront new challenges, share their expertise, renew bonds to community, make significant connections, and find ways to give back to the open source movement.”
Why does LucidWorks continue to make these kinds of investments in the developer community? Because their value-added software depends on a scalable, creative, and vibrant community that continually improves their open source foundation. Apache Lucene and Solr are the framework for the LucidWorks products and their support and services are strengthened with every new innovation that comes out of the developer community.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 3, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
How to Use Social Media to Keep Your SEO High
June 2, 2013
There is an article on socialmedianz titled How Social Media Impacts SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) has to do with where your content falls in the listings on search engines like Google and Bing. Social media has a huge impact on where your content is, as the article explains,
“Social media can help search engines find and index your content faster. Likes, shares, retweets, etc. indicates to search engine that content is new and interesting, often leading to a temporary increase in rankings. Your content will increase in search results for people connected to you. Increases domain authority and the number of inbound links to your website.”
In other words, the smallest action you can take on social media, clicking Like on Facebook, can have major repercussions for a search engine, like the proverbial butterfly wing-flap causing a hurricane across the ocean. The article provides a helpful flow-chart infographic of these effects. Social activity alerts search engines to the fact that you are authentic, up-to-date, and that you have a network of interested viewers. If this sounds appealing or out of reach, you should visit ArnoldIT to learn about planning a social media strategy that will be both effective and rewarding.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 02, 2013
If you are interested in gourmet food and spirits, read Gourmet De Ville.
Quote to Note: Digital Versus Paper
June 1, 2013
The Week section of the Wall Street Journal presents information which is amusing and up to the highest standards of journalistic accuracy. In the short piece “Paper, the Technological Tiger?” the juxtaposition of dead trees, endangered animals, and technology caught my attention. (A link to the digital version of the story is here, but it may be gone in a sort of self fulfilling and self documenting bit of newsiness.) Tucked into the write up which appeared on page C4 of the June 1, 2013, edition of the newspaper was this quote:
Paper documents can last hundreds of years, after all, but there’s still no proven way to preserve digital data beyond a few decades. The new research suggests that someday paper may become so smart that it won’t need any words at all.
What happened to the tiger? The Library of Congress is working on saving tweets. Isn’t that a promising sign?
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2013
Watson Draws Attention
June 1, 2013
From a game show win to being inundated with “Watson pitches”, IBM is doing its best to make Watson more successful than Sherlock Holmes. I read “IBM Inundated with Watson Pitches as It Prepares to Offer Service to Developers.” The headline certainly suggests that for search and content processing, Watson is going like gangbusters.
At the last two search and content processing shows I attended, I heard nothing about Watson. I suppose that specialist conferences are not the place for IBM, which has larger designs on the market. However, there were some developers on the programs at these conferences, and I don’t recall hearing a direct reference to IBM. I think I mentioned Hewlett Packard once.
The write up seeks to set me straight on the powerful pull IBM Watson is exerting on the those involved in building search related applications:
IBM is receiving hundreds of ideas from developers wanting to use its Watson supercomputing technology, which will be made available to anyone wanting to build applications on top of its capabilities.
The information comes from John Gordon who is IBM’s vice president for Watson Solutions. I associate him with the phrase “data is the new oil,” but I have mixed up which “expert” drew the word picture in my mind. A biographical profile of Mr. Gordon is available on Yatedo. According to an item appearing on the University of Texas’ Web site here, he “is the director of Strategy and Product Management for IBM’s new Watson Solutions Division. He is responsible for developing end-to-end business models for transforming the innovations created by IBM Watson into a strategic set of industry solutions.” Another University of Texas Web page here pointed out
Prior to this [Watson] role Gordon held a number of executive strategy, market management, and business development positions within IBM. He joined the IT industry more than 17 years ago and has consistently helped global clients enhance their performance and results by leveraging innovative technology. John holds undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Computer Applications from the University of Notre Dame and has an M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, John is a certified SOA architect with a foundational certification in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards, and is a co-author of a Harvard Business School case on value-in-use solution pricing.
I think I know the magnitude of the developer stampede. Programmers are really into public relations and MBA analyses.
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2013
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