Lextek Onix Profile Now Available… Free
March 20, 2014
You may not know that profiles of vendors from IDC-type operations can cost $3,500 or more. Even more impressive are azure chip consulting firms’ penchant for using information from folks who provide reports for free. Hey, there are many former middle school teachers, failed Web masters, and even poetry majors who need a job. Have at it, I say.
If you are interested in search and content processing, you may know that I have been posting 15 to 30 pages profiles of information retrieval vendor systems. Today you can snag a PDF report about Lextek International and its Onix search toolkit.
You have not heard of Lextek?
I would wager a cup of tea made from water drawn from Harrods Creek that you have used the search function in Acrobat. If you have, you have experienced the thrills of the Onix toolkit used by Adobe to make it a delight to search a PDF file.
Lextek keeps a low profile. The company operates from a suburban home in Utah., As part of the founder’s diversification effort, the driving force of Onix opened a gourmet chocolate shop. Autonomy bought Verity and Interwoven. Lextek moved into chocolate and did not implement a search system for the new venture’s Web site. Interesting to me.
You can find the report, which is current through late 2008, on my Xenky.com site. The report is at http://bit.ly/1hBnSAR. There are 12 reports in the series. IDC has taken down the profiles of open source search systems that appeared between 2012 and March 2014. I will be posting the unfiltered versions of these reports in coming months.
My goal is to make the complete collection of more than 50 vendor profiles available without charge. The index to the free reports in the Xenky series is at http://bit.ly/1boX86v.
If you want to correct or complain about a particular report, please, use the Comments section of Beyond Search for the article announcing the availability of a profile.
Before writing baloney about vendor’s origin and core technology, I suggest you check out my reports. The misinformation about which company first used the phrase “content intelligence” or “linguistic search” is amazing. My profiles point out which company used a phrase and when. For example, have you heard about “information black holes”? Autonomy used the phrase in a remarkable marketing brochure in 1997. I know that some subsequent users of the phrase assumed it was a product of their fertile mind. Nope.
Enjoy the Lextek write up. You can try the system if you have Acrobat Reader 6 or higher. Did Adobe make optimal use of Onix? In my opinion, not by a long shot.
Stephen E Arnold, March 20, 2014
In Spite of Loss of CEO, Basho Still Running Strong
March 20, 2014
The article titled Basho’s CEO, CTO and Chief Architect Leave the NoSQL Upstart on The Register reports on the company’s insistence that in spite of these major upheavals, the upstart is still moving forward with its “distributed system dream.” Former Basho CTO Justin Sheehy and now-former chief architect Andy Gross were both part of the companies formation and helped create the flagship technology Riak as well. The article explains Riak,
“…an open-source scale-out NoSQL database that is used by various large organizations around the world including Best Buy, the UK’s National Health Service, Comcast…Riak is a high-availability, fault-tolerant database management system that uses a key/value model for object storage. Its tech is fully distributed so each node contains a full copy of the Riak package, allowing whole sections of a data center to suffer a brownout before the service goes down. If configured correctly, it can also survive an entire data center-wide failure.”
Sheehy spoke assuring words about Basho’s future, promising that while the changes sounded menacing, the departing employees were still on good terms with the company. Meanwhile they are in the process of finding a new chief executive. Past employees have left Basho to take up positions at SolidFire and Orchestrate.io.
Chelsea Kerwin, March 20, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Facebook Shrugs at End of Organic Reach to the Chagrin of Marketers
March 20, 2014
The article on Advertising Age titled Brands’ Organic Facebook Reach Has Crashed Since October: Study begins with a dire end-of-days of free reach on Facebook pronouncement. The data is from Social@Ogilvy, which discovered a decline from about 12% to just over 6% among 106 country-level brand pages. This drop is from October to February. The reason seems to be that users are getting too much content thrown at them, too much to possibly consume. The article explains,
“Increasingly Facebook is saying that you should assume a day will come when the organic reach is zero,” he said. In the short term, Mr. Manson expects to see the drop in organic reach to drive a bit more Facebook ad spending. In the longer term, he expects to see increased investment in social channels like Twitter, Facebook-owned Instagram and WeChat and for brands to effectively hedge their bets instead of being centrally focused on Facebook.”
Facebook, unsurprisingly, is putting money first, and assuming a position that looks more like a shrug than anything else. They have urged marketers to stop seeing organic reach as a bonus rather than part of what they are buying when they purchase ads on the social networking site. It remains to be seen whether marketers are buying this argument.
Chelsea Kerwin, March 20, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Patent Complaint filed by BrightEdge for Searchmetrics Infringement
March 20, 2014
The article titled It’s BrightEdge vs. Searchmetrics in SEO Patent Case on Search Engine Watch warns of containing some “dry legalese”, but when it comes to patent infringements that is difficult to avoid. This particular case involves a complaint filed by BrightEdge, which claims that Searchmetrics is illegally using BrightEdge technology. Dennis Goedegbebuure, head of SEO at Airbnb explains Searchmetrics point of view in the article,
“That system was built in 2009, where we built the strategy starting in 2008, far before the patents by BrightEdge were submitted. We would check the ‘share of voice’ of any eBay page ranking for a keyword, and compare our position with the competition on multiple factors, backlinks and on-page factors; after which, we would be able to estimate what would be needed to push those eBay pages upwards in the rankings.”
This may sound like Google spoofers of the SEO variety getting legally frisky. The article explains that most innovative companies take out patents either as a defensive move against “patent trolls” or simply to avoid having there more unique ideas stolen by competitors. Patent controversies are common, and the system is clearly imperfect between combative companies and patents occasionally being awarded to the wrong company.
Chelsea Kerwin, March 20, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Machine Learning on Display at SharePoint Conference 2014
March 20, 2014
SharePoint Conference is always a prime time for Microsoft to make new announcements regarding their ubiquitous platform. And true to form, SharePoint Conference 2014 did not disappoint. Lots of exciting announcements were made, but ComputerWorld focuses on the Office 365 updates in their article, “At SharePoint, Microsoft Talks Up Ambitious Enhancements for Office 365.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft didn’t disappoint with the new and improved capabilities it announced and demonstrated for Office 365 this week, but how well they work in the real world remains to be seen. At its SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft laid out its vision for making Office 365 a more intelligent collaboration suite via new social interactions, APIs (application programming interfaces) and machine learning capabilities.”
It is no surprise that machine learning is a big focus. The article goes on to describe some of the details. A more intuitive and user-friendly platform is no doubt what Microsoft is striving for. Stephen E. Arnold of ArnoldIT.com has long followed SharePoint. He often finds that the major complaints center on efficiency and the high demands of customization. Machine learning could help improve both areas.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 20, 2014
The HP View of Watson
March 19, 2014
I suppose IBM will respond with more than recipes at South by Southwest. If you enjoy big companies’ analyses of one another, you will want to gobble up “15 Reasons HP Autonomy IDOL OnDemand Beats IBM Watson.” This is not the recipe for making pals with a $100 billion outfit.
What does IBM Watson have as weaknesses? What does the reinvented (sort of) Autonomy technology have as strengths? I cannot reproduce the 15 items, but I can highlight five of the weaknesses and enjoin you to crack open the slideshow that chops up the IBM Watson PR stunt.
Here are the six weaknesses I found interesting:
- Reason 3. IBM Watson is a data scientist heavy platform. IDOL is not. My view is that HP paid $11 billion for Autonomy and now has to deal with the write down, legal actions related to the deal, and tossing out Mike Lynch’s revenue producing formula. Set aside the data scientists and the flip side “too few data scientists” and consider the financial mountain HP has to climb. A data scientist or two might help.
- Reason 4. HP has “an ultimate partner story.” I find this fascinating. Autonomy grew via acquisitions and an indirect sales model. Now HP wants to make the partner model generate enough revenue to pay off the Autonomy purchase price, grow HP’s top line faster than traditional lines of business collapse, and make partners really happy. This may be a big job. See IBM weakness 9, 11, 12, and 14. There is some overlap which suggests HP is having difficulty cooking up 15 credible weaknesses of Watson. (I can name some, by the way.)
- Reason 6. HP offers a “proven power platform for analytics.” I am not sure about the alliteration nor am I confident in my understanding of analytics and search. IBM Watson doesn’t have much to offer in either of these departments. IDOL, at least the pre HP incarnation, had reasonably robust security capabilities. I wonder how these will be migrated to the HP multi cloud environment. IBM Watson is doing recipes, so it too has its hands full.
- Reason 10. HP asserts that it offers a “potential app store.” I understand app store. Apple offers one that works well. Google is in the app store business. Amazon has poked its nose into the marketplace as well. I don’t think either HP or IBM have credible app stores for variants of the two companies’ search technologies. Oh, well, it sounds good. “Potential” is a deal breaker for me.
- Reason 13. HP “is focused on ramping up the innovation lifecycle.” I think this means coming up with good ideas faster. I am not sure if a service can spark a client’s innovation. Doesn’t lifecycle include death? Since IBM Watson seems a work in progress, I am not sure HP’s just released reinvention of Autonomy has a significant advantage because it too is “ramping up.”
- Reason 15. HP has “fired up” engineers. Okay, maybe. IBM has engineers, but I am not sure if they are fired up. My question is, “Is being fired up” a good thing. I want engineers to deliver solutions that work, are not “ramping up,” and not marketing driven.
My take on this slide deck is that it is nothing more than a marketing vehicle. I had to click multiple ads for HP products and services to view the 15 reasons. Imagine my disappointment that five of the IBM weaknesses related to partnering programs. Wow, that must be really helpful to a licensee of cloud Autonomy trying to deal with performance issues on an HP data center. HP is definitely countering IBM Watson’s recipe play with old fashioned cheerleading. Rah, rah.
Stephen E Arnold, March 19, 2014
HP and the Next Big Thing from Somewhere
March 19, 2014
I read “Rethinking Future Services and the Application Portfolio.” I found the write up on the or an HP blog interesting. The notion that software “supplies intellectual., property to address business problems” is also interesting.
I suppose the notion of open source software does not fit in this category. Although there are different types of licenses and plenty of commercial outfits finding ways to make money from open source software, the notion of “intellectual property” and community developed software strike me as discordant.
The HP blog asserts:
The problems are viewed as IT and not what the business needs. In order for these service providers to address the specific needs of an organization, greater service integration flexibility is required. This allows for real integration of business processes, meeting the businesses unique needs. IT that supports those business processes may come from many different sources. This flexibility will require greater data transport capabilities and analytics, turning generic processing into business differentiation. This movement of data outside the control of a service provider is the bane of most as-a-service solutions, yet when you think about it – whose data is it??
Well, what about that shift in perspective for intellectual property. From a software vendor allowing a customer use the vendor’s intellectual property to “whose data is it.” I think data is a plural but HP definitely does not feel constrained by the shackles of subject very agreement nor by the boundaries of consistent use of the phrase “intellectual property.”
I think the main point of the write up is that the new type of information technology has to offer or provide “application configuration capabilities.” I thought old fashioned configuration files could do that, but maybe I am off base. I am not sure to do with the point that people don’t know how to code.
My take away from this blog post is that HP is churning out content that just doesn’t make much sense to me. My hunch is that HP wants to support its efforts to wrench itself away from printer ink to the new and somewhat commoditized world of cloud computing.
I am probably incorrect again. HP has a big hill to climb with its about face on things that are mobile, the fascinating Autonomy repositioning, and the price cutting from Google. I am sure HP’s next big thing will come from somewhere.
Stephen E Arnold, March 19, 2014
Rise of the Paratext
March 19, 2014
The term “mixed media” takes on new meaning as the production of TV show and movie tie-ins dwarf their axial projects. The Chronicle Review note’s that now, “The Paratext’s the Thing.” Writer Thomas Doherty observed that, as he anticipated the final episodes of a certain show, advertisers encouraged viewers to log onto its website for “the two-screen experience.” For him, that was one screen too many. However, he sees his preference fading into the minority—audiences seem to appreciate the added content and, sometimes, this secondary material becomes more popular than the centerpiece.
Though the money- and decision-makers behind media products have a lot to gain from selling additional content, much of the complementary material actually comes from fans. The article explains:
“The paratext is the satellite debris orbiting and radiating out from the core text: what the post-telecast chatfest Talking Dead is to The Walking Dead, what Madonna-vs.-Lady Gaga mashups are to the original music videos, what Wolverine action figures are to the X-Men franchise—what all the buzzing swarms of trailers, teasers, bloopers, tweets, swag, webisodes, podcasts, chat rooms, fanzines, geek conventions, DVD extras, synergistic tie-ins, and branded merchandise, in all their infinite varieties, are to the mother ship. If the main text is the great white shark, the paratext is the pilot fish—and if the old-school film critic wanted to sink his teeth into a close textual analysis of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), the paratextual critic prefers to dissect the creation and marketing of Bruce, the mechanical shark at the Universal Studios tour.”
The term “paratext” was coined by French literary theorist Gérard Genette in 1987. He looked at additional material as a framework for the audience’s perception of the central work. In this way, it was an essential part of the work itself. In literature, this took the form of devices such as forewords, afterwords, and supplemental resources. I’m not sure action figures and blooper reels serve quite the same purpose. Doherty seems to agree, because he keeps coming back to the idea that the central project is and will ever be the main draw, no matter how much detritus surrounds it.
See the article for discussion of how paratext got from there (epigraphs and appendices) to here (webisodes and geek conventions). Will paratext content continue to expand, or will it reach some kind of equilibrium? Even geeks only have so many hours in a day.
Cynthia Murrell, March 19, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Civic Predictive Analysis Proving Accurate
March 19, 2014
We find the field of predictive analysis fascinating (see here, here, and here, for example), and now we have more evidence of how important this work can be. Motherboard reports on “The Math that Predicted the Revolutions Sweeping the Globe Right Now.” The key component: high food prices. Writer Brian Merchant explains:
“There’s at least one common thread between the disparate nations, cultures, and people in conflict, one element that has demonstrably proven to make these uprisings more likely: high global food prices.
“Just over a year ago, complex systems theorists at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned us that if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be riots across the globe. Sure enough, we’re seeing them now. The paper’s author, Yaneer Bar-Yam, charted the rise in the FAO food price index—a measure the UN uses to map the cost of food over time—and found that whenever it rose above 210, riots broke out worldwide. It happened in 2008 after the economic collapse, and again in 2011, when a Tunisian street vendor who could no longer feed his family set himself on fire in protest.”
Bar-Yam’s model forewarned about the Arab Spring and the Tunisian self-immolation. Well, not those specific ways unrest would manifest, but that something big and ugly was bound to happen. Similarly, the same model divined that there would be conflicts around the world this year—as we have seen in the Ukraine, Venezuela, Brazil, Thailand, Bosnia, Syria, Spain, France, Sweden…. Last year’s global food prices were the third-highest on record; this is no coincidence. See the article for more on Bar-Yam’s methods as well as specific links between food scarcity and some of the conflicts currently shaking the world.
What can this technology do, besides hand a few of us a big bucket of “I-told-you-so”? Armed with this information, policymakers could take steps to modify the way the global marketplace is run and stop (at least some, possibly most) food shortages before they start. This means powerful people from many countries would have to work together to make major changes on a global scale for the good of humanity. With money involved. Hey, anything’s possible, right?
Cynthia Murrell, March 19, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Yandex Offers a Developer Kit for Android
March 19, 2014
Russian search leader Yandex describes its suite for Android developers in a company blog post, “Android Device Manufacturers Get Kitted Out with Yandex.Kit.” The post compares the Android operating system to a “car without the key” for mobile developers—the OS is free, but most of the mobile-device functionality we have come to expect is tangled up in a web of case-by-case agreements. Now, Yandex says their Kit represents that missing key. The write-up explains:
“Yandex.Kit is a customisable suite of mobile components available for most versions of Android OS. It has all the basics indispensable for the up-to-date mobile experience. Vendors selling their original Android devices in Russia can enjoy the full Yandex.Kit package, which currently includes an app store, launcher and dialer, browser, maps, a cloud app – 15 apps overall. OEMs targeting other markets can enjoy Yandex.Kit as a trio of Yandex products – Yandex.Shell UI, Yandex.Browser and Yandex.Store.
“And the best part is there are no fees. Yandex.Kit is distributed on a fee-free basis and performs well on virtually any hardware, including the not-so-powerful devices popular in Russia and the CIS. In addition, smartphones carrying Yandex.Kit can be easily branded under the manufacturer’s name.”
The post goes on to list a number of features developers should be excited about, complete with screenshots. For example, their smart dialer pulls data from Yandex’s Business Directory to identify commercial callers not already in a user’s contacts. They also extol the virtues of their mobile browser, calling it “smart, secure and easy-to-use.” Then there are the cloud service, the geolocation-compatible mapping API, and the Store populated with over 100,000 apps. See the article for details.
One of Europe’s largest internet companies, Yandex is the search engine Russians turn to the most. Folks in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Turkey also use the service. Yandex says it’s primary goal is to “make people happy” (a tad more specific than “don’t be evil,” but not by much). Launched in 2011, the company is headquartered in Moscow.
Cynthia Murrell, March 19, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
