Commerce Search Gets A Tad Bit Better With Enhancements
August 31, 2013
What is the difference between an enhancement and an upgrade? An upgrade indicates a whole new system and solutions for bugs. An enhancement implies that the current piece of software works well, but it is only being made better. Exorbyte, a commerce search application, announced its “Enhancements and Optimizations In July 2013.” The enhancements and optimizations for Exorbyte come in the form of two new features. The first feature is face normalizations that allows users to map different spellings and variations under a single facet value. Another cool thing about this feature is that users can specify the number of times an individual facet value appears in a search. This can push rarer data into search results and limit alternate forms of a query.
Here is the neatest new feature for query-based ranking:
“It is now possible to influence the ranking based on the query itself, allowing for even higher result relevancy and hence conversions. In a global ranking rule search terms can be defined that trigger this ranking rule to come into effect. For example, you can specify that the ranking rule “boost the category toy” is only activated when the query contains the word “ball”. If the query term was not used as a restriction, the category “toys” would always be boosted. For example if the query term was “golf” toy golf products would be placed on top, although users might expect professional equipment, so that this rule should not apply. So the query-based ranking allows you to tune the relevancy in cases.”
Putting the intelligence in intelligent search. It also reminds me of using an auto-tuner to pick up the proper frequency. Features like these help normalize search and make the results useful to the user. Exorbyte asserts it can eliminate the need for facet normalization with its software.
Whitney Grace, August 31, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
TEMIS Does a Me-Too With Analytics
August 31, 2013
Can we say analytics are a hot commodity at the moment? What more evidence do you need than seeing Semantic Web’s article, “TEMIS Acquires i3 Analytics.” TEMIS, a semantic content enrichment enterprise solution company, recently bought the i3 Analytics, which specializes in data and visualization technologies. A dollar amount has not been disclosed.
The i3 Analytics company is best known for its Biopharma Navigator, a SaaS that charts biopharma landscape based on life sciences open data. It is a graphic rich software that provides its users with maps, work faster, and share information among collaborators. TEMIS bought i3 Analytics to increase their product arrange as well as offering a SaaS analytics and discovery ability. TEMIS has also been trying to market itself to the life sciences business arena and this will certainly grab attention.
“ ‘The acquisition of i3 Analytics demonstrates our commitment to the life sciences market,’ said Eric Brégand, CEO of TEMIS. ‘This transaction creates a best-in-class offering for our life sciences customers, based on the winning combination of deep computational linguistics expertise and leading-edge data visualization know-how. And we will be transposing the solution to other verticals where data analytics and information visualization are also becoming critical.’ ”
Analytics software is hot at the moment. Any small company that has a decent product will quickly be snapped up by a bigger company searching for ways to maintain relevancy .
Whitney Grace, August 31, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
LinkedIn: You Search or It Finds?
August 30, 2013
One of the ArnoldIT goslings manages my social media presence. We try to provide information via automation or by asking questions. The “Stephen E Arnold” profile provides some information, but the detail located at www.arnoldit.com/sitemap.html is not included.
I am not sure what my area of expertise is. As I approach 70 years in age, I have worked in fields as diverse as machine shop janitor to advisor to the world’s largest search and software company. Along the way, I have labored inside nuclear facilities, sat in meetings which considered the fate of Fortune 500 companies, figured out how to make an online database produce a profit, and running laps for a person with $9 billion in personal assets.
I am surprised when my social media gosling reports that people are endorsing me for a wide range of capabilities. The most popular is analytics, which is okay. But my focus in analytics is how to make money. My relative, Vladimir Ivanovich Arnold, was into fancy math, which is supposed to “run in our family.” Whatever. The people recommending me are those who are “linked” to me. My view is that when someone wants to be my LinkedIn pal, the person should be involved in some way with content processing. I don’t recall most of the people, but some of the names are familiar. I stick close to Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, and avoid the bright lights and big city.
Am I a monkey in a cage for those who pay LinkedIn for access to my “content”? Image from Alamogordo.
I was not surprised to read “Why Am I Being Endorsed for Skills and Expertise I Do Not Claim on my Profile?” (Note: I have no idea if you will be able to view this community post on LinkedIn. Your problem to solve, not mine.)
The main point of the post is:
I am receiving notices that I have been endorsed for skills that I have not listed on my profile. I have over 20 years of experience and may done these tasks at some point, but these are not necessarily the same skills I want to highlight currently on my LinkedIn profile and I have not claimed expertise in these areas. Why are any of my contacts being asked to endorse me for skills I don’t want highlighted?
My answer to this question is, “Generate revenue.” But the most interesting item in this community thread comes from someone whom I assume is a LinkedIn employee, cheerleader, or amanuensis. Use the search function in your browser to jump to this snippet once you are in the community post I have cited, please:
Thank you all for the valuable feedback. Our team really appreciates it and we definitely take it into account as we continue to improve the user experience across all of our products and features. With that said, I wanted to clarify a few things regarding endorsements:
1. You can only be endorsed by a 1st degree connection (a LinkedIn member you already know are directly connected with), and you can always manage which endorsements to show.
New Marketing Angle from TIBCO
August 30, 2013
TIBCO has something new to offer its clients, according to the main Web site in the press release: “TIBCO Enterprise Message Service 8.9 Helps Businesses Scale And Streamline IT Systems.” So what exactly does that mean? The company has updated its enterprise messaging platform to version 8.0. The new message platform allows administrators to monitor and configure their EMS servers from a centralized location. Plus TIBCO added the new Java Message Service (JMS) 2.0 specification, which is the latest messaging standard.
TIBCO want to make sure that it does not fall behind in the fast-paced IT market:
” ‘To remain competitive in today’s environment of ever-increasing data volumes, organizations must develop a strategy to scale and streamline IT systems to support business growth while reining in costs. EMS version 8.0 goes a long way to help organizations do just that,’ said Denny Page, chief engineer, TIBCO. ‘The new Central Administration capabilities greatly simplify the management of large complex deployments, while support for JMS 2.0 with its simplified APIs, help reduce application development costs.’ “
Despite the 8.0 upgrade, the JMS 2.0 is the big attention grabber, because it is the first time in over a decade that TIBCO updated its JMS specifications. The main reason is TIBCO wants its product to handle larger message loads and perform more applications on a server. The new marketing angle is TIBCO is going faster to meet its clients’ demands. The times are moving faster and faster.
Whitney Grace, August 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Maxxcat Offers SQL Connector
August 30, 2013
Specialized hardware vendor MaxxCAT offers a SQL connector, allowing their appliances to directly access SQL databases. We read about that tool, named BobCAT, at the company’s Search Connect page. We would like to note that the company’s web site has made it easier to locate their expanding range of appliances for search and storage.
Naturally, BobCAT can be configured for use with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL, among other ODBC databases. The connector ‘s integration with MaxxCAT’s appliances makes it easier to establish crawls and customize output using tools like JSON, HTML and SQL. The write-up emphasizes:
“The results returned from the BobCAT connector can be integrated into web pages, applications, or other systems that use the search appliance as a compute server performing the specialized function of high performance search across large data sets.
“In addition to indexing raw data, The BobCAT connector provides the capability for raw integrators to index business intelligence and back office systems from disparate applications, and can grant the enterprise user a single portal of access to data coming from customer management, ERP or proprietary systems.”
MaxxCAT does not stop with its SQL connector. Their Lynx Connector facilitates connection to their enterprise search appliances by developers, integrators, and connector foundries. The same Search Connect page explains:
“The connector consists of two components, the input bytestream and a subset of the MaxxCAT API that controls the processing of collections and the appliance.
“There are many applications of the Lynx Connector, including building plugins and connector modules that connect MaxxCAT to external software systems, document formats and proprietary cloud or application infrastructure. Users of the Lynx Connector have a straightforward path to take advantage of MaxxCAT’s specialized and high performance retrieval engine in building solutions.”
Developers interested in building around the Lynx framework are asked email the company for more information, including a line on development hardware and support resources. MaxxCAT was founded in 2007 to capitalize on the high-performance, specialized hardware corner of the enterprise search market. The company manages to offer competitive pricing without sacrificing its focus on performance, simplicity, and ease of integration. We continue to applaud MaxxCAT’s recently launched program for nonprofits.
Cynthia Murrell, August 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Clarabridge CEO Reveals Company Strategy
August 30, 2013
The One Million by One Million Blog recently published an interesting piece on the unique tactics one CEM solutions provider is using to distinguish itself from the competition in the article,“Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Sid Banerjee, CEO of Clarabridge.”
In the article, Sid Banerjee, the CEO of Clarabridge, a leading provider of Intelligent Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions, offers his take on the ways that his company has utilized big data volumes to its advantage by inventing tools that sift through it and gather actionable intelligence from that data.
Banerjee said:
“We are not primarily selling a marketing solution, but a customer experience management solution that helps keep customers happy. You can use the same technology and apply it to marketing – providing a service to a customer or predicting what a customer might want to buy.”
Clarabridge is not the only company offering predictive analytics tools but it one that offers a customer centered experience and that is continuing to evolve to match an international market.
Jasmine Ashton, August 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Operationalize Enterprise Analytics Webinar
August 30, 2013
Introducing Big Data analytics into your daily business is a tempting next step for many organizations. However, jumping in without a plan is not a good way to get results. To get a heads up on your organization’s move to Big Data solutions adoption, consider a training opportunity like an upcoming webinar sponsored by LucidWorks. Read more in their write-up, “Webinar: Operationalize Enterprise Analytics – Similarity Search at Any Scale.”
The announcement begins:
“Similarity Search provides a foundation for enterprise analytics that can be operationalized by delivering advanced, automated data exploration capability. Learn how Similarity Search can significantly increase productivity across a broad spectrum of data search use cases.”
Presenters include Christine Connors of Knowledgent, Ted Dunning of MapR, and Grant Ingersoll of LucidWorks. The webinar will cover topics including: the foundational elements of search analytics, the organizational capabilities of Similarity Search, and a demo use case. LucidWorks is active throughout the open source community, but their main focus is their suite of solutions that help enterprises make better use of data. Do not miss this free, professional training opportunity.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Rich Data Integration Empowers Semantic Search
August 29, 2013
An author of a recent post on data integration shared his perspective on the unsung heroes of enterprise IT in his Informatica article “Data Integration and Enterprise Success, A Winning Combination.” Storing, processing, analyzing and sharing data with those who need it in real time is a challenge for many companies as they aim to match their knowledge management process with their business process.
The article discusses an organization recognized with the Ventana Research Leadership Award, awarded to a company that has achieved excellence with Informatica technology. UMASS Memorial Health Care is a recipient who undertook the Cornerstone initiative to transform the way data is used across its medical center, four community hospitals, more than 60 outpatient clinics, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
According to the article:
UMASS Memorial Health Care used Informatica to establish a data integration and data quality initiative to incorporate data from its clinical, financial and administrative sources and targets. Using the Informatica technology, they are able to place volatility into the domain of the integration technology, in this case, Informatica. This allows the integration administrator to add or delete systems as needed, and brings the concept of agility to a rapidly growing hospital system.
Data integration is a key step in the process towards enabling the true power behind semantic search. For this reason, it is a clever move to implement business intelligence solutions that can draw from a myriad of content types and source applications — like Cogito from Expert System.
Megan Feil, August 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Zylab Becomes First Provider to Offer Visual Classification in eDiscovery
August 29, 2013
Big Data is strongly impacting the way that we do business today and companies are continually coming out with better, more encompassing products to effectively utilize this unstructured data. The recent IDM article “ZyLAB offers visual classification for eDiscovery” explains how ZyLAB, a provider of eDiscovery and information management tools, will now be including visual classification and audio search within its suite of multi media data analytics tools.
The article states:
“ZyLAB’s Visual Classification automatically recognises pictures and identifies amongst others: people, babies, elderly people, flowers, cars, planes, in- and outdoor scenes, and many other concepts. The new functionality is perfectly usable for the identification of images of personal identifiable information (PII), potential intellectual property, handwritten notes, check’s, ID’s, and other information that otherwise cannot be recognised automatically.”
Zylab is currently the first provider to market this technology in the eDiscovery space and this helps streamline workflow processes.
Jasmine Ashton, August 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Blippex Takes a Fresh Approach to Web Search
August 29, 2013
This is an interesting angle: search that considers time users spend on each site, rather than the usual indicators, like link quantity and quality. GigaOM informs us about this unique approach in, “How Blippex Handles the Data Behind its Time-Driven Search Engine.” The premise is that users spend more time on sites that offer more value.
The budding Blippex is still working with a fairly small index, which is understandable considering it launched this year and has just started to get some traction. Though the Berlin-based company could have chosen to use one of the clouds floating over Europe (not literally), they are going with the web-startup flow and choosing Amazon Web Services. They are also relying on several open-source components, like MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and Redis. See the article for more details on Blippex’s use of those resources.
Writer Jordan Novet explains the unique approach, and points out one possible hitch to the time-spent model:
“The database Blippex uses keeps track of how much time users spend on a given website. The system has a way of making sure pages that sit idle — think of the tab that’s been open on your browser for three days — don’t get incorrectly interpreted as being the most valuable. . . .
“The thing is, web surfers might spend much more time poring over dense content, such as a paper in an academic journal, than on, say, a succinct news article about the same subject, even if the article is more successful at giving people just the information they’re looking for. In that case, time spent is not the best indicator of value.”
Novet makes a good point; we happy geese understand the value of a short, informative article. I checked out the site, and there is a slider aptly named “dwell factor,” with which the user can adjust how much influence time spent has on the results. If I don’t want to rely on dwell-time, though, why shouldn’t I just use Google? Well, privacy is one reason. Like DuckDuckGo, Blippex refuses to collect and share users’ information. In fact, they say, the Duck inspired their privacy policy.
Curiously, Blippex has yet to reveal how they plan to make money on the service. In fact, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, the company claims to have no business model in mind at all. Now that is a daring approach!
Cynthia Murrell, August 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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