Breaking the Curse of Enterprise Search
August 27, 2013
Enterprise search is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. Organizations have to have an enterprise search solution, and yet simply adopting a solution without additional thought and effort can add to the IT burden instead of lessening it. PebbleRoad Consultants talk about this very challenge in their article, “The Curse of Enterprise Search and How to Break It.”
Their article begins:
“Got enterprise search? Try answering these questions: Are end users happy? Has decision-making improved? Productivity up? Knowledge getting reused nicely? Your return-on-investment positive? If you’re finding it tough to answer these questions then most probably you’re under the curse of enterprise search. The curse is cast when you purchase an enterprise search software and believe that it will automagically solve all your problems the moment you switch it on.”
This is a frequent reality among enterprise users, yet the answer is simple. Search is a negotiation and user intent is everything, so the article says. Prepare for how you will use your enterprise solution and choose one that fits the bill. Be prepared to customize and continue to train your people and adjust your configuration. A solution like LucidWorks is a good way to meet those parameters. Built on the open source foundation of Apache Lucene Solr, LucidWorks solutions are agile and customizable, but are ready to go out-of-the-box. Furthermore, LucidWorks is always on the leading edge of innovation, benefiting from their large and vital open source community.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Oracle Focuses On New Full Text Query
August 26, 2013
Despite enterprise companies moving away from SQL databases to the more robust NoSQL, Oracle has updated its database to include new features, including a XQuery Full Text search. We found an article that examines how the new function will affect Oracle and where it seems to point. The article from Amis Technology Blog: “Oracle Database 12c: XQuery Full Text” explains that the XQuery Full Text search was made to handle unstructured XML content. It does so by extending the XQuery XMLDB language. This finally makes Oracle capable of working with all types of XML. The rest of the article focuses on the XQuery code.
When the new feature was used on Wikipedia Content with XML content as well the test results were positive:
“During tests it proved very fast on English Wikipedia content (10++ Gb) and delivered the results within less than a second. But such a statement will only be picked up very efficiently if the new, introduced in 12c, corresponding Oracle XQuery Full-Text Index has been created.”
Oracle is trying to improve its technology as more of its users switch over to NoSQL databases. Improving the search function as well as other features keeps Oracle in the competition as well as proves that relational tables still have some kick in them. Interestingly enough Oracle appears to be focusing its energies on MarkLogic’s technology to keep in the race.
Whitney Grace, August 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Move Over Watson And Make Room For Your Inventors
August 26, 2013
IBM, the creators of the AI Watson, are being tapped for analytics and not the talking machine. EuroCIS describes in the article, “NS Shopping Selects IBM To Transform Customer Experience With Mobile And Analytics Technologies” how the South Korean home shopping network NS Shopping has hired IBM to make new innovations in customer experience and the company’s technology infrastructure. NS Shopping is basically getting a technology overhaul from IBM’s Smarter Commerce. Big data is coming into play, as are mobile applications for connected customer experience across multiple devices.
NS Shopping wants to reach the mobile shopping market. It wants its customers to be able to shop whenever and wherever they want, instead of relying on traditional channels as a sole means of profit. The big data push is a good move and will give NS Shopping the business insights it needs to drive customer relations and profit margins.
It also gives the company an entirely new approach to customer relations:
“IBM technology will also allow NS Shopping to have a centralized, real-time view of customer and product data from across the company to better manage its supply chain and ensure effective order fulfillment. This visibility will give NS Shopping the insight and confidence it needs to further expand its product assortment to solidify its place as a one-stop shopping option. Rolling out these new capabilities is also a critical step in expanding the company’s omnichannel sales platform and achieving its long and short-term growth agenda. “
A fine example of a company transitioning to the mobile masses and falling fate to the big data boom. It is a step forward for driving the economy, albeit the South Korean economy. The US is doing this too.
Whitney Grace, August 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The New 3DEXPERIENCE
August 26, 2013
Combining words and spelling them all in capital letters is one way to get attention, but does it also bring attention in a negative way? That might be the case according to Market Watch in “Dassault Systemes Announces Groundbreaking User Experience Of Its 3DEXPERIENCE Platform And a New Cloud Portfolio.” The article is a press release hyping up Dassault Systemes’s newest innovation the V6 Release 2013 that brings a unified navigational interface for the 3DEPXRIENCE designed for on site and for the public and private cloud.
Indeed it does move the company forward and it will benefit its clients with its many new features, but this one draws our attention the most:
” ‘This release brings a disruptive new user experience and the value of a business application at every single level of the company, transforming the world of IT platforms,’ said Monica Menghini, Executive Vice President, Industry & Marketing, Dassault Systemes. ‘Our new navigational user interface is so intuitive that we wanted to give it a name: ‘IFWE Compass,’ because in business it is always a question of considering ‘what if’ scenarios to find the right path. This new release of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will help business leaders connect ideas, people, data, and solutions to create experiences that delight their customers and inspire brand loyalty.’ “
Okay, we give that the press release is not negative, but the new ‘IFWE Compass’ sounds an awful lot like regular search rehashed in techno jargon. Honestly, the new upgrade sounds good, but why not call the “navigational user interface’ what it is without relying on outdated babble. Really 3DEXPERIENCE? What is this, the nineties?
Whitney Grace, August 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
AnsibleWorks Raises Millions
August 26, 2013
AnsibleWorks is among the latest open source based enterprise companies to raise millions in Series A funding. The five-month old company has made a name in open source IT automation. Read more in the Market Wire article, “AnsibleWorks Raises $6 Million to Grow Popular Open Source Enterprise IT Automation Solution.”
The article begins:
“AnsibleWorks, Inc., the company behind Ansible, the popular Open Source IT automation solution, announced today the completion of a $6 million dollar round of funding led by Menlo Ventures. The Series A funding, coming only five months after the company’s launch, will be used to accelerate product development, sales, and other key initiatives.”
This is yet another example of open source enterprise success. Companies are turning to open source solutions, and it is not just for the affordability. Open source is now on the leading edge of innovation and customers are pleased with the results. Just as AnsibleWorks is doing great things in IT automation, LucidWorks is doing great things in open source enterprise solutions, particularly with Big Data. Their innovative approach to Big Data combines several notable open source components, including Apache Lucene Solr and Hadoop.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Source Code Search Engine Meanpath
August 25, 2013
I am surprised it took this long; we have learned about a relatively new search engine dedicated to ferreting out source code: meanpath. Each day, the service crawls some 220 million sites to capture text, page sources, and server headers. Their website explains:
“Meanpath is a new search engine that allows software developers to access detailed snapshots of millions of websites without having to run their own crawlers. Our clients use the information we gather from your site to help solve problems in these areas: Semantic analysis; Linguistics; Identity theft protection; Malware and virus analysis; We also request your favicon and apple-touch-icon if available for our favicond.com service.”
Well, okay. Meanpath goes on to explain how it accesses sites, and diligently supplies instructions for those who would keep its bot at bay. Also included is a disclaimer, noting that spammers and other unethical operatives might refuse to heed the directives specified in a robots.text file, but advises that a reverse DNS lookup will suss out any bad actors.
Founded last year, meanpath serves a variety of internet-savvy businesses, from SEO consultants to hosting companies. The company makes its home in California.
Cynthia Murrell, August 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Elsevier Partners with Ukraine Ministry
August 25, 2013
Earlier this year, Elsevier demonstrated their increased willingness to embrace open access to academic information with their purchase of Mendeley. Now, the leading publisher of scholarly journals is helping to boost information access in the Ukraine. Yahoo Finance reports on this move in, “Elsevier Announces its Cooperation with the Ukranian Ministry of Education and Science to Extend Access to Scientific Information.” The press release informs us:
“Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced its cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science in order to provide access to Elsevier’s scientific databases for sixty Ukrainian research institutions.
A Declaration of Intent for Cooperation has been signed by the Ministry of Education and Science and Elsevier. The agreement includes access to Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. The Ukrainian Ministry also intends to license ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s full-text platform for research literature and Elsevier’s SciVal research management solutions, which provide insights into research performance.”
Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Yevhen Sulima, expects the increased access will significantly boost Ukrainian research, in both quality and impact. For their part, the folks at Elsevier say they are pleased to be the first international publisher to work with the Ukrainian research community on this level. Not incidentally, the company’s sales director also hopes the deal will improve his company’s already considerable global ranking.
With over 2,000 journals and nearly 20,000 books under its belt, Elsevier is an undisputed leader in academic publishing. Based in Amsterdam, the company has been around for a very, very long time. Though launched as a modern publishing company as recently as 1880, the company takes its name from a publishing house founded in 1580 by the Dutch family, House of Elzevir.
Cynthia Murrell, August 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Companies Now Able to Purchase Ad Space on LinkedIn
August 24, 2013
The article LinkedIn Selling More Marketing Content Into Users’ Feeds on ComputerWorld states that LinkedIn, the professionals social networking site, has recently introduced “sponsored updates”. Companies are now able to purchase ad space that will appear on LinkedIn user feeds. Users have the choice of liking, ignoring, sharing or commenting on the posts. The article explains,
“The aim of the sponsored updates program is to let businesses engage select communities of LinkedIn members with useful information that can come in the form of an article, blog post, video or presentation, LinkedIn said. Marketers will be able to target any segment of the site’s 225 million members based on professional profile data… There are currently more than 3 million company pages on LinkedIn.”
Of course this is a common enough resource for social sites including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. These sites have largely dismissed the risk of annoying the users with these ads. LinkedIn will have the ability to control who gets what ads, and keep them relevant to the users based on their jobs or interests. For the past six months LinkedIn has been testing the step with such companies as Nissan and Xerox. Soon, any business with a company page will be able to buy sponsored updates, which will be clearly marked.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 24, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Surveillance Organization Unable to Search Own Employees Email
August 24, 2013
An article titled NSA Says It Can’t Search Its Own Emails on ProPublica brings up an interesting glitch in the NSA’s surveillance technology. In spite of having the capability to sort through big data with a supercomputer, when it comes to doing a search of NSA’s over 30,000 employees they are at a loss. The article explains,
“There’s no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately,” NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week. The system is “a little antiquated and archaic,” she added… It’s actually common for large corporations to do bulk searches of their employees email as part of internal investigations or legal discovery.”
The article also brings up the point that federal agencies often don’t have the funding they need for public records. However, if any agency should have the capability to keep tabs on its employees, it is the agency charged with surveillance of the nation. Lacking that ability limits NSA operatives to searching emails by individuals one at a time instead of searching for keywords or in bulk. This is very interesting in light of recent events, no further comment.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 24, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Shortcut Available for Text Searches Online
August 23, 2013
An article titled SearchClip Searches the Web for Text You Select with a Keystroke on Lifehacker addresses a Windows utility that enables easy search of highlighted text. The utility runs in the background once installed and enables the user to simply select text, hit Ctr+C twice in order to do a web search on the highlighted text. The utility, named SearchClip, sounds like a variant on the Autonomy Kenjin app developed over five years ago. The article explains some specifics of the program,
“You may need to add an exemption to your anti-malware tool for SearchClip to work—it does need to capture keyboard input to work, which can set off your antivirus app’s alarms. If you’re worried, Scott Hanselman was the one who turned us on to this one, and the code is freely available for inspection at GitHub. Also, you need Microsoft’s Visual C++ installed for the tool to work.
The article also states that on the first attempt to use SearchClip a DLL error code may appear. This problem disappeared once the package was installed. This utility seems like a shortcut of a shortcut, since copy and pasting Visit GitHub to try SearchClip out. Most of the responses to the post were critiquing the awkward hand position pictured in the article.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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